These fine men and women are the new mentoring team our 16th, along with Chris Patura (external trainer) and SMASH staff, Debbie and Carrie. There are a couple missing though, team 16 comprises 10 volunteers in all. They are Denise, Jonathan, Christina, Darren, Leanne, Chris, Paula, Paul, Andrea and Catherine. The next time you see them they will either be collecting their certificates from the mayor or meeting the mentees at waterland. More on Team sixteen coming in 2008.
The SMASH @ Crowdys Hill School project is now under way. These young people are Shane, Claire, Mark, Harry and Jordan (Casey was away). They will be working with SMASH staff between now and the summer to improve their confidence levels and every day skills. They have set all kinds of goals for themselves from paying for themselves on a bus to learning to dive off a diving board to ordering food and drinks in a cafe and raising some money for homeless people. It’s all about raising confidence and learning to work together. I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of them as the months go on. Watch this space.
Now is probably a good time to say that the views expressed in this Blog are not necessarily the views of SMASH as a whole because… I hate the whole leafleting in shopping centres and shaking cans in supermarkets that goes on in the voluntary sector. In fact I swore I’d never do it. . . None the less here I am with Heidi Mabbott from the volunteer centre (It’s “get volunteering week” by the way) accosting shoppers at Asda in West Swindon. Actually it was better fun than I’d thought, until we were told by the centre management that we shouldn’t actually approach people but wait for them to approach us. Hmmmm that didn’t help but standing by the post box did. Whether I like it or not though, the real point of all this is to get people volunteering and volunteering for us at SMASH if at all possible. The truth mind you (and this is why I hate this stuff) is that less than 1% of volunteers are recruited this way. More than 60% come via word of mouth from people already volunteering so the people who can really get other people volunteering are all of you reading this right now. Please tell your friends, your work colleagues, your family and anyone else you meet to make 2008 the year that they
GET VOLUNTEERING FOR SMASH!
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