Celebrating International Volunteer Day at Stepping Stone Projects

Posted: 5 December 2023 11:13 am.

At Stepping Stone Projects our support for customers doesn’t end when they get into housing. We continue to support them to develop life skills that will help them make their own next steps. Our Employment Officer Geraldine works with customers to find enriching opportunities that have benefits for them and for their local communities.

This year we have opening up our new Home to Home shop with the help of Dunelm, bringing home goods directly to our customers completely free. One of our customers, Rachel, has joined us working at the shop as a volunteer. In her role she helps to direct customers to the shop and helps them to check out with their items. She has found that volunteer work has helped her to get out of isolation and given her a focus that she can work towards and feel proud of at the end of each day. As well as being a huge support to our colleagues who work at the Home to Home shop, Rachel is gaining new employability skills and developing her CV with experience in retail and customers service. Rachel has said that as a customer herself, she can connect with the customers who come into the shop and that she feels able to make a real difference in relating to them.

Geraldine has also supported two young men from our service to get volunteering roles in the Blackly community, helping to revamp a run-down area of the local cricket club. Coming into Stepping Stone Projects as ex-asylum seekers, they wanted to develop their employment skills, and gain work experience while also developing their English language skills. The opportunity to volunteer helped them to expand their social circles and meet new people. They were also keen to show gratitude to the local community by helping make a community space useable again for cricket and local events.

At the heart of our work, Stepping Stone Projects is there to provide a stepping stone to independence for our customers. Whether that be providing them with support to develop independent living skills or developing their employability, we are here to help our customers any way that we can.

*names have been changed to protect our customers

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