National Volunteer Day

Celebrating National Volunteer Day with a Volunteer Story from Brad.

‍

In 2017, I suffered with severe anxiety and depression whilst in school. I wanted to give up and had lost any will power to carry on. It was during an important time as it was when I was sitting my GCSE’s which made it more difficult.

However, with the support of my amazing family, friends and others, I was able to find the strength to continue fighting. It wasn’t easy but 5 years later, I have completed 2 years at college, and 3 years at University of Lincoln and graduated with a First Class Degree in BA Hons Graphic Design. It’s been a rollercoaster journey. I’ve experienced the highest highs, and the lowest lows, but looking back now, I am proud of the journey and it’s one that’s full of many lessons, many memories and along the way I’ve met the most incredible people.

Throughout my third year at university, I had the pleasure to be welcomed by Julie at Bless, to volunteer for her by managing the Bless Social Media accounts. This entailed creating posters for upcoming events and photographing the weekly groups, for Social Media Content. This ran alongside my degree at the time, helping me put my design aspirations into a real world setting.

Being at Bless, I met the most amazing people, including staff, volunteers and attendees. I’ve had plenty of practice in making a good cuppa as well as having such a great opportunity to work with a charity where there are deadlines to be met, content that always needs to be uploaded and created, events that needed to be advertised and booked, plus lots more! Now working within the design industry, these are all vital skills that I still put into practice and I was lucky enough to have a year extra experience due to having the opportunity to volunteer at Bless. Having this skill set on my CV also put me above others when applying for jobs and I managed to secure a Junior Graphic Designer position within a month of leaving university!

I have Julie and the rest of Bless to thank for helping me in such a huge way. Being a part of Bless opened my eyes to what is needed within our community and Bless is the full package. As well as helping the group attendees, it also helps the team too. During my last year at university, times were stressful and difficult but going to Bless every week, despite it being to work, helped me so much as I was able to chat about my struggles to people and be offered positivity and guidance from everybody. Even after university, I was nervous about what to do having finished but again, Julie and everybody else were there to offer there support and advice whilst sitting with a cuppa and a slice of cake.

Bless is a community. Staff, volunteer or attendee, everybody helps everybody whenever they are in need. Being a part of the team was such a special opportunity and one that I will forever be grateful for. It has provided me with a great set of skills and I have learnt valuable lessons that I will carry throughout my career. As well, on a personal basis, Bless helped me through one of the most stressful times of my life and pulled me out of days that seemed just as dark as they did 5 years ago. I cannot put into words how grateful and thankful I am towards Julie for giving me such an amazing opportunity. For taking a chance and allowing me to learn and better myself. I will forever be in debt to Julie due to how much Bless has helped me progress within my career and personal aspects of life.

‍

If you'd be interested in becoming a volunteer with Bless, please complete the form on our volunteer page and we'll be in touch to have an informal chat with you.