1Good morning.
2My name's Lucy Crittenden,
3and I'm the Director of Operations for an organisation that arranges volunteering in this part of the country.
4I'm hoping I can persuade one or two of you to become volunteers yourselves.
5Let me start by briefly explaining what we mean by volunteering.
6Volunteers are teenagers and adults who choose to spend some time, unpaid, helping other people in some way.
7Most volunteers devote two or three hours to this every week, while a few do much more.
8The people they help may have physical or behavioural difficulties, for example.
9Volunteers can do all sorts of things, depending on their own abilities and interests.
10If they're supporting a family that's struggling, for example,
11they may be able to give them tips on cooking,
12or recommend how to plan their budget
13or how to shop sensibly on their income.
14They might even do some painting or wallpapering,
15perhaps alongside any members of the family who are able to do it.
16Or even do some babysitting so that parents can go out for a while.
17The benefit from volunteering isn't only for the people being helped.
18Volunteers also gain from it:
19they're using their skills to cope with somebody's mental or physical ill health,
20and volunteering may be a valuable element of their CV when they're applying for jobs:
21employers usually look favourably on someone who's given up time to help others.
22Significantly, most volunteers feel that what they're doing gives them a purpose in their lives.
23And in my opinion, they're lucky in that respect,
24as many people don't have that feeling.
25Now I'd like to tell you what some of our volunteers have said about what they do,
26to give you an idea of the range of ways in which they can help people.
27Habib supports an elderly lady who's beginning to show signs of dementia.
28Once a week they, along with other elderly people, go to the local community centre,
29where a group of people come in and sing.
30The songs take the listeners back to their youth,
31and for a little while they can forget the difficulties that they face now.
32Our volunteer Consuela is an amazing woman.
33She has difficulty walking herself, but she doesn't let that stop her.
34She helps a couple of people with similar difficulties,
35who had almost stopped walking altogether.
36By using herself as an example,
37Consuela encourages them to walk more and more.
38Minh visits a young man who lives alone and can't leave his home on his own,
39so he hardly ever saw anyone.
40But together they go out to the cinema,
41or to see friends the young man hadn't been able to visit for a long time.
42Tanya visits an elderly woman once a week.
43When the woman found out that Tanya is a professional dressmaker, she got interested.
44Tanya showed her some soft toys she'd made,
45and the woman decided to try it herself.
46And now she really enjoys it, and spends hours making toys.
47They're not perhaps up to Tanya's standard yet,
48but she gains a lot of pleasure from doing it.
49Alexei is a volunteer with a family that faces a number of difficulties.
50By calmly talking over possible solutions with family members,
51he's helping them to realise that they aren't helpless,
52and that they can do something themselves to improve their situation.
53This has been great for their self-esteem.
54And the last volunteer I'll mention, though there are plenty more, is Juba.
55She volunteers with a teenage girl with learning difficulties,
56who wasn't very good at talking to other people.
57Juba's worked very patiently with her,
58and now the girl is far better at expressing herself,
59and at understanding other people.
60OK, I hope that's given you an idea of what volunteering is all about.
61Now I'd like...