Take a look at these beautiful sketches from SM, a talented artist and Pave the Way volunteer. Thank you S, we need some workshops and greetings cards. Who wouldn’t love to own one of these?
Piercing emotions, beautiful sketches
Are you looking for a unique volunteer role that allows you to work closely with older people, learn more about their stories and also allow them to make space and live safely in their own homes?
The Attic Project is currently looking for volunteers from Cardiff, Newport and the Vale to join its team of Reminiscence and Attic Volunteers. The roles entail;
If you are interested in volunteering and would like to find out more please contact Catherine at [email protected] or alternatively on 07934531001 / 02921322627
28th march saw the second meeting of our OCD group. It’s a social thing, a small group of people meeting to chat about whatever comes to mind, to eat cake and to have a cuppa.
We had planned to go for a wander around Bute Park but early rain a change of venue to somewhere with a roof and a cafe. We met at the Museum, arriving just as lots of people were leaving for the day. We just sat in the cafe catching up and chewing the fat – well, chewing a delicious piece of cake to be honest…..
Great to meet up again, thanks all. Looking forward to the next one, Cardiff’s our oyster, where will it take us?
Stay well, Jo
Whatever you need to talk about the Samaritans are there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Phone free on 116 123 or email [email protected], Cardiff and district info here: https://www.samaritans.org/branches/cardiff-district-samaritans
I started volunteering a couple of months ago. I volunteer a couple of hours a day, 2 days a week. VCS is a relaxed setting and where there is little pressure put on you so I can work at my own pace.
The VCS Radio Cardiff building is a 10 minute walk from the City Centre so it is easily accessible and easy to travel by bus or rail.
My main areas of focus are Administration & Research. With regards to administration:
With regards to research, I carry our research for WellWaves, a community mental health radio show. I put together information to give to the two presenters of the show.
I have also had buddying help role from Raj on how to cope with a reception role. I had about 5 hours help from him.
This beautiful, organic garden project is looking for volunteers. A couple of us were lucky enough to go and visit and have a look around. Ian, who runs the garden believes that there is space for all things so the slugs and snails get to share produce and space with bees, moths, frogs, toads, common lizards even a grass snake or two.
Just a short time after joining Pave the Way, on the 8th June, our inspirational volunteer, Karen spoke live on our Art of Being Well show about her experience of living with bipolar. Karen has an amazing story and her passion for all things wonderful is infectious. You can listen again here: www.mixcloud.com/BeingWell/the-art-of-being-well-8th-june-2017/
Karen on air with Jay and Jen – Cassie and Jo are in the studio listening in
James and the Diffusion team welcomed us to a recruitment session at the Ffotogallery studio at Chapter. We went along with colleagues from Pave the Way in the Vale. The festival ran throughout May 2017 across many venues in Cardiff. The Diffusion team offered lots of different volunteering opportunities. There was something for everyone: public facing; behind the scenes; admin and marketing; construction; social media, all sorts.
The festival exhibited works by photographers from across the globe and attracted visitors from far and wide – its theme was Revolution. You can find out more here: www.diffusionfestival.org/
In April, Pave the Way volunteers joined Guy O’Donnell, the Sherman 5 team and lots of other organisations to Get Creative.
We went behind the scenes and onto the stage which was set up for City Road Stories, and we got to sit in the Studio which was showing Killology. It was very hard to resist touching the props ……
City Road Stories was there, we got to add comments on a huge map of City Road. Needless to say the section around Poets’ Corner / PC’s / Tut & Shive was full of interesting memories …
The amazing Made In Roath Collective was at the event with a poetry booth. Lit bombing? We loved it. We got to choose a subject and the poet in residence at the booth composed express masterpieces. Here are two, one called Freedom and one called The Sherman.
Everyone signed up to join Sherman 5, some PtW volunteers signed up to be Sherman 5 reps.To top off a fantastic morning, refugees in Cardiff, through Cardiff City of Sanctuary, served up a stunning array of traditional dishes from a number of African Nations. This is Jo’s plate with Eritrean, Ugandan, and Congolese food.
Diolch Pawb!
Pave the Way – wellbeing through volunteering
Contact Jo for more information:
If you want to find out more about Sherman 5:
We had sunshine and fun when we hitched onto a Green Days volunteering session at Forest Farm on Friday 30th June. We were pulling balsam and crushing bracken. Forest Farm is beautiful, a real hidden gem. If you haven’t been there, check out this link for more information: http://forestfarm.org.uk/
Rangers explaining what balsam and bracken are – just as well as Jo was clueless
David, Kevin, Jo and the Green Days team who let us join them
David looking cool and working hard
This beautiful wildflower meadow was a patch of scrub land not so long ago. Green Days project volunteers cleared the land earlier in the year and planted it up, it’s near the rangers’ hut for everyone to enjoy
If you want to find out more about volunteering with the Green Days you can via this link: https://www.innovate-trust.org.uk/green-days/department or if you are a Pave the Way volunteer, contact Jo ([email protected])
VCS Cymru – or Voluntary Community Services Cymru Limited to use our full name – held its 51st Annual General Meeting last night in the impressive setting of the newly opened Cornerstone Centre in Charles Street.
A new Management Committee was elected for the coming twelve months, with four new Trustees joining the organisation:- Alan Vaughan Hughes -who is Head of Cardiff University Special Collections & Archives; Joanna Parry – Senior Volunteering Manager at Marie Curie Cancer Care; Rhys Phillips – Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) Ambassador and Donna Zammit – Local Businesswoman and longstanding member of the Radio Cardiff management team. They join the four Trustees who return for another term:- Mary Newman MBE (Chair); Andrew Vicker – Cardiff Council (Treasurer); Ken Barker (South Riverside Community Development Centre) and Nasir Adam (Taff Housing). Two new sub groups will be set up this year – Community History and Community Media – and further members with specialist knowledge in these areas will be co-opted to join over the next few weeks.
Following the formal business of the AGM the Management Committee ratified a proposal which will see VCS co-locate with Radio Cardiff at their premises in Butetown from 1st December.
This year’s presentation was from the Chronicle Team, and was given by Klavdija Erzan (Project Co-ordinator); Lara Taffer (Apprentice Archivist) and 2 members of the growing team of Chronicle Volunteers – Eleanor Hill and Mike Hawkins.
Our thanks go to all the Trustees, Volunteers and VCS Staff who made the evening an enjoyable and engaging event; to Vina Patel our Advisor from Social Firms Wales; Daniel Binks – our Mentor from Lloyds Bank, and Laurence Cohen – our Accountant from Gordon Downs & Company for their contributions; and to the team at Cornerstone for their excellent service.
Our Annual Report for the year 2015-16 is available here:
Annual Report 2015-16VCS will be moving to 5-6 Hayes Building, Curran Road, Cardiff/CF10 5DF from December 1st, with ‘The Release Project’ and our new mental health supported volunteering project ‘Pave The Way’ operating from there, together with our Community Media projects. ‘The Chronicle Project’ has relocated to Glamorgan Archives for a temporary period of six months.
The move to Hayes Buildings will also be temporary as the building is in an area of redevelopment and VCS, together with Radio Cardiff (the community radio station) will be seeking new permanent premises together in 2017, which promises to be an exciting year.
As ever, we want to thank our funders: the Lloyds Bank Foundation; the Heritage Lottery Fund (Wales); the Big Lottery Fund (Wales) and Cardiff Council for their ongoing support.
