This year Volunteers’ Week stretches from the first to the seventh of June, and the theme is ‘Thank You’ to all volunteers. In tune with this message it feels appropriate to talk about all the amazing work volunteers do within Ecas!
Volunteers are vital to all we do at Ecas, and we are hugely grateful to everybody who chooses to give their time to support us in delivering our programme of activities, grants and befriending service. This Volunteers’ week we are pleased to share some words about what our volunteers do within Ecas!
Our volunteer befrienders take part in a highly responsible form of volunteering, being matched to a befriendee and then visiting a physically disabled person and developing a relationship with their match. Since the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020, our befrienders have gone above and beyond in adapting to distanced befriending.
Our volunteer befrienders do amazing work in supporting physically disabled people, providing friendship, conversation and more. The work our befrienders do has a real tangible impact to the befriendees they are matched with. A great example of the difference made in this quote provided by Ecas befriendee, Rheanan:
Befriending isn’t the only area where volunteers play an important role within Ecas, our Board of Directors and Finance and Personnel Committee (F&PC) do incredible work in supporting Ecas to provide its services. Without the Board and F&PC, Ecas would be unable to run the services we offer. These roles can sometimes go unappreciated, so in tune with the theme of Volunteers’ Week this year, we wanted to give a huge thank you to those who spend their time doing vital work that helps us continue to function and support people with a physical disability.
It is easy to be stuck in the loop of what we all do, and here at Ecas we love the idea of saying thank you to our volunteers! Without our volunteers, we would be unable to do our important work, and we are so incredibly grateful to all of our volunteers for the time and effort they put in. Volunteers are a huge part of the heart and soul of Ecas, and we are very grateful to everyone who has given their time to support us, be it through befriending, through working on our board of Directors, or on our finance and personnel committee!
If you would like to give some time to volunteer, we are currently recruiting for new members for our F&PC. If you can attend three meetings a year and have an interest and expertise in these fields, please check out https://www.ecas.scot/vacancies. We are also always interested in hearing from people who are interested in becoming befrienders, for more information check out our page on befriending https://www.ecas.scot/befriending/befrienders-role/.