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Volunteers Newsletter

We’re delighted to announce that Age UK Hertfordshire has been chosen as the charity for Rock at the Castle this year.

Rock at the Castle will take place on Sunday 4th August from 12.30pm—7pm. The free music festival will be held in the grounds of Hertford Castle

and has seen thousands of visitors return each year.

It’s a free festival but we will be fundraising on the gates—so we’re looking for help with this if any of you are interested in joining us, or if you know

someone who you think might want to volunteer for the day?

The more help we get on the day, the more money we can raise to continue our much needed services for older people in Hertfordshire.

Get in touch with Ellie on fundraising@ageukherts.org.uk

Summer 2019

Message from The CEO

Happy summertime to all our wonderful volunteers, we hope you’re enjoying this

‘intermittent’ good weather and that life is being kind to you all.

There’s so much to catch up on, our volunteers week celebration events from

earlier in June, the exciting news that we’ve have been chosen as the charity for

Rock at The Castle in August as well as our responses to your feedback from a

recent Visiting Scheme Volunteer survey, and lots more information that we hope

you will find both interesting and useful.

We hope that you all have a lovely summer, we’re out and about at lots of events

and festivals over the next few months so come and say hello if you see us and

thanks as always for being our volunteers!

Best wishes

Deb

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Feedback from Visiting Scheme Volunteers Survey

Last year we sent out a short questionnaire to our Visiting Scheme volunteers

asking for your feedback and thoughts on how we might be able to improve.

We had lots of responses, mostly positive, but definitely there are some areas

where we’ve already made changes, and will be continuing to adapt our services

to try and ensure that we are supporting you and our clients as best we can.

Here are a few of the changes that we’ve made in response to your suggestions:

Increased access to information

We have set up a volunteers resources area on our website. Volunteers can

access this to check up on our policies and also to download useful forms such as

expenses forms.

Increased information on Lone Working & Out of Hours working

Our Lone Working Policy is in the Volunteers Resources section of the website

and we also have a new Out of Hours Guide on there.

Increased Contact

You asked for more contact with your coordinators so we are working towards

that. These contacts are an opportunity for you to discuss any concerns and for us

to catch up, but you are always welcome to call anytime if you have any questions

or issues.

We have also increased our contact with our clients, ensuring that we speak to

them at least twice a year to check how they are getting on. We will also always

visit if there are any concerns.

Increased visibility of the service

Many of you said that you didn’t think enough people knew about the Visiting

Scheme and that Age UK Hertfordshire needed to be more visible in the

community. We are trying to get out and about more and raise awareness about

our services and how we can help older people in Hertfordshire. We also have a

new Community Engagement Team who are working on improving our marketing.

More events and opportunities for volunteers to meet up

We are planning to do more of this, we have set up some dementia training for

later in the year and have plans for other training and chances to get together.

With best wishes and thanks—Trudie Harrington (Visiting Scheme Manager)

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Celebrating our Volunteers!!!

We were delighted to see so many of you at our Volunteers Week events and even

more thrilled with how many local businesses got involved, donating gifts for us to then

give to you. We also wanted to say a special thank you to both The Manor Hotel in

Elstree and Needham House Hotel in Hitchin for letting us host these events free of

charge and for their generosity in donating refreshments for all.

Thanks to everyone involved and hope to see you all again next year!

Our partners Hertswise work to

support people living with dementia

or memory loss in Hertfordshire.

If you’re interested in finding out

more or volunteering then get in

touch!

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Upcoming First Aid Training—please contact us on 01707 386060 or

Volunteering@ageukherts.org.uk if you’d like to attend!

At Head Office, Silver Court,

Watchmead AL7 1LT

Tuesday 16th July 2019

Thursday 19th September 2019

Friday 18th October 2019

Monday 18th November 2019

Tuesday 10th December 2019

At the Clitheroe: Centre, South Oxhey, WD19 6RP

Tuesday 30th July 10-12

Thursday 29th August 10-12

Tuesday 24th September 10-12

Wednesday 30th October 10-12

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving

more.”

― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Contact the Elderly

Contact the Elderly is a charity dedicated to tackling loneliness and social isolation among older people. Established in 1965, we organise free monthly social gatherings for people aged 75 and over who live alone. Each older guest is collected from their home by a volunteer driver and taken to a vol-unteer host’s home, where they meet with a small group for tea, chat and friendship. The group is welcomed by a different host each month but the drivers remain the same. Contact the Elderly currently supports more than 80 older guests in 16 groups across Hertfordshire.

If you’re interested in volunteering for Contact the Elderly, or you know someone who could benefit from coming along to a tea party, please call 0800 716 543 (freephone) or email alexandra.berwick@contact-the-elderly.org.uk