In March 2020, Lisa attended a volunteer drop in at Hinckley Library to get support in finding volunteering opportunities to help her get back into employment. She initially signed up to the Work.Live.Leicestershire Project where her VAL Keyworker worked with her to identify potential employment routes and volunteering roles that would help Lisa to find the perfect role suited for her.
Due to the pandemic and early parts of the lockdown, this was difficult to do as many services were either temporarily closing or were not taking on new volunteers. Eventually VAL identified an opportunity as a Baby Box Volunteer with the Children and Families Wellbeing Service to support young mums at the start of their parenting journey to ensure they have adequate support and receive the right advice on how to care for their new-born.
Baby Box is an organisation based in Hinckley & Bosworth. The project has been running for a number of years and was designed by young parents to support young parents-to-be. Leicestershire Children & Family Wellbeing Service (CFWS) is a multi-agency service that works with young people 0 – 19 years of age. Young parents-to-be are visited during their pregnancy and gifted a box full of things they’ll need when their baby arrives. They are also offered support and onward referral to enable them to give their baby the best start in life.
Lisa has now completed all the relevant training for the role, which increased her confidence and introduced her to a new way of working. Volunteering gave her the confidence to start applying for jobs. As a result from her volunteering experience, she has got herself a new job and starts working as a Social Prescribing Link Worker in January 2021.
Lisa is looking forward to starting her new job, she would also like to continue her volunteering to carry on supporting her local communities and making a difference.
Get in touch
If you are interested in volunteering and would like to find out more, search our current opportunities online: volunteerleicestershire.org.uk