Volunteer Stories – Heather’s Story

Volunteers’ Week – It’s a chance to say thank you for the contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK and a great way to recognise and thank all our volunteers, for all the amazing things they’re doing to help us make a difference.

Hello – My name is Heather Jallands and I am an Advisor in the Sector Support Team at Voluntary Action LeicesterShire.

I have volunteered at the Leicester Family Contact Centre for over 10 years now.  The Centre is an independent, volunteer-run charity that provides a safe, neutral venue where children can meet with their parents and other family from whom they are separated after family breakdown. The sessions are usually run over a 3 hour period on a Saturday afternoon with children getting to spend 2-3 hours with their non-resident parent.  The contact varies and can be weekly or fortnightly and there is always a waiting list for families wanting to use the service.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit the sessions came to an immediate halt and as you can imagine this was an extremely difficult and stressful time for the parents who could no longer have any contact with their children.  With the advice and support of the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC) the management committee and volunteer team leaders discussed different ways that contact could be resumed and we were able to offer a 30 minute Zoom session to families.  Two volunteers were present at each Zoom session with cameras and sound turned off after the initial welcome so they were not ‘too intrusive’.

Not all families were able to use this option for different reasons – parents that didn’t want any contact with each other or didn’t feel comfortable with it, didn’t have the technology to facilitate it or couldn’t get the children to engage with them but for some it provided valuable contact with their children during lockdown.  The venue that was usually used has remained closed since March 2020 but the coordinator managed to find an alternative venue to use and in September we were able to offer families a one hour face to face session every fortnight.

Extremely rigorous precautions were put in place to comply with government advice, with staggered arrival times for families and the hall divided up into separate sections using chairs.  Door handles, tables and chairs were sanitised after each arrival and all toys, games and equipment were sanitised and only used by one family per session.  All credit to the coordinator and committee for ensuring that the centre was able to continue to deliver a service and that children have been able to have some form of contact with their non-resident parent. As a volunteer it has been very emotional watching the smiles on the faces of children and their estranged parents and the evident joy and pleasure at being able to spend time with each other again after a long time apart.

We will be moving back to our usual premises next week and hopefully in the not too distant future will be able to resume the longer, more frequent sessions to families to ensure that children’s emotional needs are met and they don’t miss out on this vital contact with a loved one that they don’t currently live with.

We are always on the lookout for new volunteers so if you are interested please visit the Leicester Family Contact Centre website for more information: https://leicesterfamilycc.org.uk/volunteering/

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