I'm Connor, and I have been volunteering with BYHP for almost two years. It has been an amazing adventure, and I want to share my experience of volunteering with you.

I first got involved with BYHP while I was between jobs; I wanted to put my availability at the time to good use, and BYHP struck me as a good cause. In truth, I wasn't sure quite what to expect, or how I could be useful before joining. But the team here was incredibly welcoming, and I quickly discovered I had a lot more to offer than I thought. More than that I was able to see first hand the impact that BYHP was having on people's lives and knew that this was something important.
 
Initially, my role at BYHP involved supporting the admin staff with various day to day tasks. A tonne goes on behind the scenes in any organisation; there's always something fun happening and being able to support the processes that enable BYHP to achieve the things it does is very fulfilling. In time I also transitioned into supporting the Unlocking Potential program and Job Club; this involved working directly with the young people. It was here that I was most surprised with myself.

I had no formal training or prior experience in working with young people, but I found myself in the role of a teaching assistant of sorts for Unlocking Potential. I supported the logistics of the program and also assisted with the delivery of the course content. In the Job Club, I drew upon my experiences of job seeking to support the young people with finding work. I discovered, much to my surprise, that I was very able to engage with the young people and had something to offer them. It was incredibly rewarding to watch them grow and achieve their goals.

I am now working at the Warriner School as a result of my experiences at BYHP, which has changed my availability. Currently, I assist with BYHP's peer support group on Wednesday evenings. We create a nurturing environment for the young people to come and share their feelings, get advice, enjoy fellow volunteer Natalie's fantastic cooking, and socialise with each other. I also make myself available for fundraising events and still support the admin staff whenever I can. My role at BYHP has changed a lot over time, and that has allowed me to see that no matter your availability or skills you can always play a role in organisations like BYHP that rely on volunteers.

Volunteering with a charity is a fantastic experience that comes with a mutual benefit. No matter who you are, or what you can do, you do have something to offer. Volunteering will open the way to new skills and new experiences, and is incredibly rewarding; I never expected to be doing the things I am now, and hope that in sharing my experience I can encourage you to volunteer yourself.

I am Natalie and I volunteer at BYHP on a Wednesday night as part of the Peer support group. I am a volunteer cook and try to create nutritious and tasty dishes using the donations kindly offered to BYHP from local organisations in Banbury.

I joined BYHP in October 2016 after moving to Banbury from Norwich where I was a volunteer with the Norwich Soup Movement who work to feed the homeless in Norwich. I loved this work and was keen to continue to support another local group when I moved, as I recognise that I have been very fortunate in my life and have skills that can help others.

Each week at BYHP, with the help of Deb, I try to introduce the young people to new ingredients and food through the preparation of tasty dinners. Each week I also provide a vegetarian option giving them to the opportunity to try something new and helping them to think about food differently.

I love this volunteer role as working with the young people allows me to see the wonderful difference that BYHP makes to their lives. Bringing them together each week for a meal allows the young people to chat and share stories and thoughts about their week in a casual and friendly setting, something that they may not otherwise get the chance to do.

Seeing the young people transform their lives and achieving their goals is so rewarding and it is satisfying knowing that you have a been a small part of this.

Another aspect of this volunteer cook role that I enjoy is using the donated food from local organisations. Much of the food is past its sell by date and so would otherwise end up in landfill, so using it to create delicious, nutritious food feels great!

For example, we made baked bananas with chocolate which was a real treat!

BYHP do so much excellent work to help young people and to be able to contribute to the work of this wonderful charity and to utilise my love of cooking makes me feel very lucky. 

Below is a short video of the amazing pizzas that Natalie produced, from scratch, with donations (and a few ingredients we had to buy in). 

Its Volunteers Week again, and we like to make the most of saying thanks to all our volunteers during this time. We have an evening planned for Wednesday 7th June to celebrate the amazing work that they all do. We also love to here from them about their experiences with us. 

So......back in June 2016 one of our amazing volunteers, John Marshall, wrote this post:

http://www.byhp.org.uk/blog/older-people-have-a-lot-to-offer-the-young

We are so grateful to still have John working with us and he has written this update to his blog of last year. 

I’ve been a volunteer with BYHP for 3 years, and have enjoyed immensely working with such dedicated and enthusiastic people that make up ‘the team’.
 
A significant proportion of BYHP’s help and support to young people takes place “in the field”, so to speak, in the form of face to face counselling, family mediation sessions, looking for housing solutions etc., etc., conducted by highly trained, highly committed, professional personnel.
 
As a volunteer, I’m not a trained counsellor, although some of us are, but in order for an organisation like BYHP to function efficiently, it requires dedicated back room staff. I carry the glamourous title of ‘volunteer administrator’, and am currently occupied in scrutinising and updating all BYHP’s mandatory Policies and Procedures. Mind numbing at times, but absolutely vital in maintaining the professionalism and integrity of the organisation.
 
Other volunteers help organise the Food Bank, or are actively supporting the many fundraising activities which take place during the year. There are many ways people like me can help at BYHP.

Come and join us. Volunteering can be very fulfilling – try it !

For more information about volunteering with BYHP please contact Ginette Wheeldon on volunteering@byhp.org.uk

BYHP is a small charity with 7 employees (4 full time & 3 part time) which relies on the amazing support of a number of volunteers to support 200-300 young people a year.

BYHP's volunteers come from a range of walks of life and are a range of ages.

Increasingly young people who have accessed and benefitted from BYHP's services come back to help as volunteers, either as they realise what they have gained and want to give back or as a way to continue their skills to help them become ready for paid work.
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BYHP's volunteers undertake roles such as helping at the weekly Job Club, helping young people write CVs and apply for jobs, they manage and organise the Foodbank which the young people have access to, they help set up and manage the laptops & other technology we use for Job Club and the Unlocking Potential training course and they use the food donated by local supermarkets and severed to us by Food for Charities and make delicious, nutritional lunches and dinners for the young people who access those services.

See the bios of some of our volunteers here: http://www.byhp.org.uk/our-volunteers.html

BYHP also attends and organises a number of events throughout the year and volunteers make up a substantial part of the teams who promote BYHP's work to the public and help raise awareness and funds to continue that work.

We are always looking to add people to our list of volunteers and a range of roles are available here: http://www.byhp.org.uk/jobs.html

If you interested, contact us and we will send you an application form, we will ask you in for a chat to discuss options to see if there is a role which is the right fit for both you and BYHP.

We are very keen to make the volunteer experience a great one for both sides and so will only move forward with a potential volunteer if everything works, as we know a volunteer's time is precious and so we want the time spent at BYHP to be rewarding and fulfilling.

Interested? Contact:
​volunteering@byhp.org.uk

Today marks the start of volunteer week http://volunteersweek.org

Here at BYHP we are going to mark the 12 days of the week (yes 12 - figure that out!) with a series of blogs detailing how we work with volunteers, what they do for us and the benefits they bring us and volunteering brings them.

Although we have a team of paid employees working at BYHP many of us started our involvement through volunteering and we are so glad we did!

There is a lot of research about both the level of volunteering in the UK and also the benefits - both physical and psychological - of helping others.

​Here are just a couple of articles:

​Or more simply put by Action for Happiness

Of course, we are always looking for new volunteers to add to the amazing group who already help us and if you would like to volunteer at BYHP we have some specific roles which are detailed on our website.
http://www.byhp.org.uk/jobs.html

For opportunities generally around Banbury see:
http://volunteerconnectbanbury.com/