Angéline, Lucy and Klaudia emerge smiling from a caving session
Volunteers Dolores and Gordon hanging in there....
Volunteers and their children reflect on the day
No object is too high to climb...Literally!
Volunteers and Staff Away Day
On 11th July C&C held its first ever Away Day for its team of amazing dedicated volunteers at the Lambourne End Activity Centre, Essex funded by ‘Awards for All’ and initiated by Dolores & Gordon’s fundraising coffee morning last year.
Almost 20 volunteers, their children and almost all of C&C’s staff dragged themselves out of bed on a Saturday morning but were soon wide awake after a session of speed-dating style ‘get to know you’ workshops and getting stuck in with some outdoor activities, including a teambuilding assault course, orienteering, a ropes course, caving and a farm tour. With muscles stretched and spirits high, the afternoon session looked at new ways that volunteers can become involved in our work, and even come up with some suggestions of community focuses projects to self-initiate. We were excited beforehand about what ideas would come out of the day, and our expectations were far exceeded! Bright ideas were plentiful and included projects to encourage fear free travel on public transport, a community quiz to increase shared knowledge about different cultures, conflict resolution activities with toddlers and relationship building events for residents of blocks of flats. We’re optimistic that many of these proposals will be put into action over the coming months. In fact, we have already received some small funding from Comic Relief for precisely this, so watch this space!
Energy for volunteering has really been riding high since the day, with many volunteers having already become involved in different areas of volunteering, such as learning the ropes of what being a Management Committee member is all about and helping the Conflict Resolution team with preparatory work for mediation cases. Other suggestions made by the volunteers on the day are also already in motion, such as planning for a regular volunteers social film night to allow some time to share experiences and get to know each other. So all in all, to say it was a fun and productive day would be an understatement!
