Take a look at these beautiful sketches from SM, a talented artist and Pave the Way volunteer. Thank you S, we need some workshops and greetings cards. Who wouldn’t love to own one of these?
Piercing emotions, beautiful sketches
28th march saw the second meeting of our OCD group. It’s a social thing, a small group of people meeting to chat about whatever comes to mind, to eat cake and to have a cuppa.
We had planned to go for a wander around Bute Park but early rain a change of venue to somewhere with a roof and a cafe. We met at the Museum, arriving just as lots of people were leaving for the day. We just sat in the cafe catching up and chewing the fat – well, chewing a delicious piece of cake to be honest…..
Great to meet up again, thanks all. Looking forward to the next one, Cardiff’s our oyster, where will it take us?
Stay well, Jo
Whatever you need to talk about the Samaritans are there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Phone free on 116 123 or email [email protected], Cardiff and district info here: https://www.samaritans.org/branches/cardiff-district-samaritans
I started volunteering a couple of months ago. I volunteer a couple of hours a day, 2 days a week. VCS is a relaxed setting and where there is little pressure put on you so I can work at my own pace.
The VCS Radio Cardiff building is a 10 minute walk from the City Centre so it is easily accessible and easy to travel by bus or rail.
My main areas of focus are Administration & Research. With regards to administration:
With regards to research, I carry our research for WellWaves, a community mental health radio show. I put together information to give to the two presenters of the show.
I have also had buddying help role from Raj on how to cope with a reception role. I had about 5 hours help from him.
This beautiful, organic garden project is looking for volunteers. A couple of us were lucky enough to go and visit and have a look around. Ian, who runs the garden believes that there is space for all things so the slugs and snails get to share produce and space with bees, moths, frogs, toads, common lizards even a grass snake or two.
Just a short time after joining Pave the Way, on the 8th June, our inspirational volunteer, Karen spoke live on our Art of Being Well show about her experience of living with bipolar. Karen has an amazing story and her passion for all things wonderful is infectious. You can listen again here: www.mixcloud.com/BeingWell/the-art-of-being-well-8th-june-2017/
Karen on air with Jay and Jen – Cassie and Jo are in the studio listening in
James and the Diffusion team welcomed us to a recruitment session at the Ffotogallery studio at Chapter. We went along with colleagues from Pave the Way in the Vale. The festival ran throughout May 2017 across many venues in Cardiff. The Diffusion team offered lots of different volunteering opportunities. There was something for everyone: public facing; behind the scenes; admin and marketing; construction; social media, all sorts.
The festival exhibited works by photographers from across the globe and attracted visitors from far and wide – its theme was Revolution. You can find out more here: www.diffusionfestival.org/
In April, Pave the Way volunteers joined Guy O’Donnell, the Sherman 5 team and lots of other organisations to Get Creative.
We went behind the scenes and onto the stage which was set up for City Road Stories, and we got to sit in the Studio which was showing Killology. It was very hard to resist touching the props ……
City Road Stories was there, we got to add comments on a huge map of City Road. Needless to say the section around Poets’ Corner / PC’s / Tut & Shive was full of interesting memories …
The amazing Made In Roath Collective was at the event with a poetry booth. Lit bombing? We loved it. We got to choose a subject and the poet in residence at the booth composed express masterpieces. Here are two, one called Freedom and one called The Sherman.
Everyone signed up to join Sherman 5, some PtW volunteers signed up to be Sherman 5 reps.To top off a fantastic morning, refugees in Cardiff, through Cardiff City of Sanctuary, served up a stunning array of traditional dishes from a number of African Nations. This is Jo’s plate with Eritrean, Ugandan, and Congolese food.
Diolch Pawb!
Pave the Way – wellbeing through volunteering
Contact Jo for more information:
If you want to find out more about Sherman 5:
We had sunshine and fun when we hitched onto a Green Days volunteering session at Forest Farm on Friday 30th June. We were pulling balsam and crushing bracken. Forest Farm is beautiful, a real hidden gem. If you haven’t been there, check out this link for more information: http://forestfarm.org.uk/
Rangers explaining what balsam and bracken are – just as well as Jo was clueless
David, Kevin, Jo and the Green Days team who let us join them
David looking cool and working hard
This beautiful wildflower meadow was a patch of scrub land not so long ago. Green Days project volunteers cleared the land earlier in the year and planted it up, it’s near the rangers’ hut for everyone to enjoy
If you want to find out more about volunteering with the Green Days you can via this link: https://www.innovate-trust.org.uk/green-days/department or if you are a Pave the Way volunteer, contact Jo ([email protected])
Our founder, Robert Davies has taken some time to reflect on the news of Rhodri Morgan’s passing.
Rhodri Morgan who was Vice-President of Voluntary Community Service from 1997 has died.
At a local, national and international level he was known and admired by many. Great people are praised by the great for their great work But many ordinary folk will also be aware of his closeness to their everyday concerns. Typical of this was his involvement with VCS and many similar organisations.
His first contact with our work was in 1966 shortly after VCS was founded. It was to plan the construction (by a UNA International workcamp) of an adventure playground at the former Ely Hospital School for Handicapped. Together we discussed the proposal with the Headteacher, Grace Edwards and her daughter Julie ( who he was to marry soon after). This happened to be the year when George Thomas, MP, became Pesident of VCS Cymru. Rhodri became Honorary Vice-President in 1997 at the death of George Thomas (with Robert Davies as Hon. President).
VCS Cymru now runs Radio Cardiff, which Rhodri officially opened in 2007. Subsequently he was a frequent guest for broadcast interviews until his retirement.
He attended the VCS Cymru 50th Anniversary although not “officially” and his wife Julie Morgan, AM, gave an address at the main celebration meeting.
Over the years of our organisation’s long history we are grateful for the significant and continuous support and influence of such a person.
Our thoughts are with those closest to him at this time.
Today’s been a busy day in the office. Not only have we been celebrating Radio Cardiff being named the Best Radio Station in Wales and the South West, but we’ve also began our six month stint as one of the Co-op’s chosen community charities.
Our work means collaborating with some of the most disatvantaged people in our communities. This is sometimes a hard-sell to funders as we’re often working with the people on the fringes of society. But we belive in giving everybody a chance, so it’s worth it.
In 2017 we went it alone, going back to our roots as a social action charity with a greater focus on people. We handed over the Volunteer Centre to C3SC and refocused our efforts on three core strands of work; heritage, media and supported volunteering. This transition has meant us needing to find new ways of raising funds. We no longer recieve funding directly from government and now wholly rely on grants and donations. Asking for money is never easy, harder still in today’s tough times, but we belive in what we’re doing, and see the effects of our work on a daily basis.
In our 50 year history we’ve been through quite a bit. We’ve gained and lost staff and faced closure sevral times, yet we are still here, and today are stronger than ever.
The Co-op Local Community Fund is one way we are raising funds for the work that we do. Members who’ve signed up can donate 1% of their shop to us without it costing them a shiny new £1! Even a propotion of the 5p spent on carrier bags goes into the pot. It’s really easy to sign up to the scheme, it will cost you a £1 but for that you get 5% back on all co-op branded products (including funerals)!
You’ll need to choose us as your charity, but you can do that later. There are some great charities on there already, so if you wanted to you could spread your generosity acorss them all!
I’m going to be addicted to the website over the next six months, hopefully seeing our total rising, thinking about all the ways we can use that money to help people locally.
If you’d like to get involved in fundraising for VCS Cymru, or have any new ideas for us then get in touch. We’re always looking for new ways of raising funds for our work!
Thanks for reading.
Mike – Development Manager
