Volunteering by Jennifer Fulton

At the moment I am a volunteer with a charity called Home-Start. They support families who have children under five years old. Home-Start supports almost 77,000 vulnerable children across the UK. In this country we have health visitors, who visit mothers, after they have given birth. If the mother has problems, they will continue to visit and often they refer families to Home-Start, whose full-time co-ordinators will visit the home and then place a volunteer, who is able to offer friendship and support.

Last year I applied to work with Home-Start as a volunteer. The only experience they ask is that you have parenting experience. Before I could begin, I attended a ten week training programme. There was a group of ten and most of the course involved interaction with each other. It was very practical and covered issues such as child protection and stressed the importance of confidentiality.

Now I visit a family every week. The mother is very isolated, as she has no family nearby and because of medical problems has difficulty walking and going out of doors. Her son is four and will soon be starting school. We usually chat and, if she is able, we may go out but usually I take her son to a swing park, while his mother has a rest. I was able to help her place her son in a school close by. The local authorities had suggested another school, which was too far away for the family. I also try to help the mother improve her English, as it is not her first language.  I enjoy helping this family and I know they enjoy my visit. I have a co-ordinator, who I meet up with every month but I can contact her at any time if I have any major concerns about “my family”.

My mother-in-law is 92 and lives in her own home. She has always been very independent but now is not able to go out. Our local authority gives her help and I do all her shopping for her. She is very precise with her requirements and is very angry if I do not get EXACTLY what she wants. For example she does not want any “free range” or “organic” nonsense. You will be pleased to hear I am improving!

It will soon be the school holidays and I enjoy helping my daughters with their children. I have a daughter in London who has a child who is severely autistic. I have read books and articles about this condition but would be interested to hear how other countries educate children with autism. Please contact me of you have experience in this field. I also have grandson in Italy, who will be staying with us, as he has three months summer holidays, which I think this is far too long. 

As we often visit Italy, I have been trying to learn Italian at Strathclyde University. Although I have been studying for five years my grandson is very disparaging, when I speak in Italian. “That is not Italian you are speaking,” he says,” That is Scottish Italian.”

I am also on the committee for the Italian club. Every month we have a speaker. Talks are about Italian films, opera, art etc. I help hand out wine and pizza after the talk. It is a popular club and everyone is friendly.

The group who went to Vienna from Glasgow met for lunch last week. Ena brought us prints of Jerzy’s photos which we enjoyed looking at. We are sorry we are not going to Slovenia but send our greetings to everyone, who came to Glasgow.  All the best to everyone.  Enjoy your volunteering.

Jennifer Fulton May 2012