by Nikki Lane - Support Coordinator in East Herts and Broxbourne
It is hard to believe that I’m writing a blog about my first year at Reach Out … it has all gone so quick.
As a Support Coordinator for Reach Out, I’m part of a team of 5 working across the whole county supporting people who are medically vulnerable and home from hospital. We match them with a volunteer who can offer support in their own home whilst they adjust and recover from illness.
I joined North Herts and Stevenage CVS in the summer of 2023, following a desire to work in the sector. It just felt right to do something at that time. Perhaps everything that had happened in the previous few years with the pandemic and lockdowns just made me make that decision. Knowing that you could have a positive impact on people and make a change and this role certainly does give you the warm and fuzzy feeling when you know how you have made an impact.
Stepping to the charity sector was a big change from what I had known – I have years of experience in the travel, sports and events industry. I can name airport codes and reel off the phonetic alphabet but all of sudden new abbreviations were being thrown at me – a number which were medical and when you’re only medical background is episodes of Grey’s Anatomy it can be quite daunting!
The first few months were an eye opener, learning who the various organisations are, how they work together but essentially just knowing who is who and what they do. To be honest there are still many meetings when I do have to put my hand up and ask!
One aspect that I really think and hope I’ve jumped into is the hands-on approach with volunteers and clients. I was keen to bring some stability to the area that I manage and initially tried to connect with all of the volunteers in the region, which was quite a task. The volunteers are key to the project, so I wanted to make sure they felt recognised and hopefully I’m doing this. We often have volunteer meet ups – it’s a great chance for me to catch up with the volunteers and for volunteers to meet up with each other – share stories and activities/groups that they might attend.
Of course, one of the best bits of the job is the clients. I carry out home visits on our new referrals into the project so meeting with them and advising how we can help and provide them companionship is a lovely thing to do. A simple chat and cup of tea can make everything so much better. I’ll stay in touch with the clients when they are involved in our project and honestly the feedback that we have from them is fabulous. Some have become firm friends of mine, and I love catching up with them and they have nothing but good things to say of the project and how much having a volunteer (who to be honest has now become a friend) has changed their lives.
It has been a full on and fast paced first year: developing relationships with referrers, ensuring we are prominent at events to make sure people know about the fantastic project, managing the volunteers & clients and learning a whole lot about the charity sector.
Joining a new organisation can be daunting but the team at Reach Out welcomed me with open arms, made me feel at home from day one and to be honest are probably a little bit over my silly jokes! It’s a great team, we work hard, help as much as we can and as so many in the community do, we do good and at the end of the day, going home knowing you have made a difference is a pretty good feeling to have!