Our Volunteer Stories
We work with over 100 volunteers every year who we recruit, train and match with our children and teenagers at mainstream activities. Our volunteers come from a wide variety of backgrounds and have different levels of experience working with children and teenagers with additional needs.
All of our volunteers complete our Volunteer Induction Training, undergo an enhanced DBS check and two references are taken up. Once the volunteers have completed this process they are matched with a child at an activity and their journey as one of our volunteers truly begins.
The volunteers build amazing supportive relationships to enable the children to take part fully in their chosen activity.
Every one of our volunteer and child matches has a story to tell and here you can find out more about two of our volunteers Rose and Yalmaz.
Meet Rose
Rose has been volunteering with Me2 Club for just over a year. She has previously supported another child and has been with her current match Charlotte for 8 months. The help that she provides means that Charlotte is thriving at Guides, working towards obtaining badges and making friends. Rose is also one of our volunteer ambassadors, which means that she attends Volunteer Induction Trainings to speak about her volunteering role and helps us at Me2 Club parties and fundraising activities.
We asked her to share some of her thoughts on volunteering for Me2 Club, this is what she had to say.
“The thing I most enjoy about my role is seeing my young person grow and get more confidence. One of the targets for my young person was for her to interact more with her peers. I feel she has made enormous strides with this and me being there to support has allowed her to have more time doing activities than she had before.
Volunteering with Me2 Club has taught me so much. I have learnt to be compassionate and kind to all people. I have also learnt to never underestimate or judge people. I have also learnt about the inner workings of a charity and have gained absolutely amazing skills and experience for my future.”
Meet Yalmaz
My name is Yalmaz and I am a 17-year-old sixth form student. After being introduced to Me2 Club by my sixth form and attending their training workshop, I was moved by the personalities and goals of the team and was urged to volunteer. I also found it to be a fantastic opportunity to gain experience with additional needs and help my community. I have been paired with a charming young individual, Kieran who attends Cubs. Together we take part in a whole range of activities from fencing to gardening work. I’m there to make sure Kieran stays on track with the activities whilst keeping his excitement bubbling, centring the focus onto the task and making it more engaging. It feels great to see him contributing to the activities increasingly by asking questions and sharing facts he knows about the topics. Noisy situations are difficult for Kieran, so working through them is always a challenge, but playing minigames to take a break and interacting with others at Cubs is great fun. I would absolutely recommend volunteering with Me2 Club for personal growth and helping wonderful young people.
