Charlie - Retail Volunteer

What is your volunteer role at Farleigh Hospice?

I have been volunteering at the Farleigh Warehouse in Maldon for nearly two years. My main job is to sort the donations and stock sent to us from the other Farleigh shops. I’m also a sales assistant and help with customer service.

There are two parts to the warehouse. One is furniture, homeware, books and DVDs and the other is clothes and the children’s section, with occasion wear and eBay items upstairs. I usually help in the clothes side but I'm happy to go where needed if we are short-staffed.

When I go through the clothes, I point out anything that's obviously higher value, designer, new or vintage. We take them to our colleagues in the e-commerce team who put them online to maximise the income from the donated items.

Why do you volunteer here at Farleigh?

I have a young daughter so I’m not working at the moment as it’s very hard to find something that fits around her. I didn’t want to be sitting around doing nothing and I still wanted to go to work in some capacity – for my own sanity as much as anything else - which is why I decided to do some volunteering.

Before I had my daughter, I was a manager at House of Fraser so I have some experience in retail. Someone told me that Farleigh Hospice was advertising for volunteers at the warehouse and the hours fitted around my daughter’s school, so I applied. I was delighted to get the role and I’m very happy to be helping to raise money for my local hospice charity.

The other reason for me personally is that it will be a relevant current reference when I look for a job. Otherwise an employer might ask ‘what have you been doing?’ while I haven’t been working.

What training and support are you given to help you in the volunteer role?

There were health and safety forms to fill in and other necessary training that that I had to do before I could begin volunteering. Then I was paired with somebody to shadow them and get shown what to do. It's relatively easy - it's a simple task but you have to keep up with the volume of things coming in.

Everyone is very friendly and we all help anyone new when they start volunteering.

What do you enjoy most about volunteering?

For me, it's the social aspect of getting out the house and also feeling useful and productive. At Farleigh Warehouse as we are like a family - we all look after each other.

When I was working as a manager, I was quite busy and on the go all the time. Being at home, I just kind of lost that sense of purpose and needed to feel useful again. Volunteering has really helped with that.

Also, I've got a lot of knowledge and experience in retail that I enjoy using in this role. For instance, I like dealing with difficult customers – they make my day more interesting! Somebody else might not be confident in that situation but if I can help, that’s good.

What advice would you give to someone thinking of becoming a volunteer?

If somebody is looking for something to do or just feeling a bit low in themselves, I would definitely tell them to become a volunteer. It gives you a sense of purpose and helps to build up your confidence and self-esteem.

Volunteering is also a good way to get back into work. You are doing a job, but it’s not the same pressure so it can give you that time to adjust, which is very helpful.

How do I find out more about becoming a volunteer?

For more information on any of our volunteer roles, or to find out more about volunteering with Farleigh Hospice, please contact our Volunteering Team on 01245 933735 or email us at volunteer@farleighhospice.org