A group of young people from Islington have received an award for volunteering from the Jewish Volunteering Network (JVN).
The young people are care leavers or in care and many are seeking asylum in the UK. Over the past year, they have been involved in community projects, including sewing hospital gowns and working in a soup kitchen for the homeless. Although they were not overall winners in their category – Volunteer Team of the Year – they received the volunteering award in recognition of their hard work. Their achievement was shared on social media last week.
The volunteers are part of Islington’s Grandmentors, a scheme run by Allison Bennett from Volunteering Matters. “The overall winners were not our young people,” said Allison, who nominated the volunteers, “ but the important thing was to…give them a chance to hold an award and feel good about themselves.
“I’m so proud of them and inspired by them because these are young people who have not had an easy start in their life, or had an easy journey to get where they are,” Bennett said.
Many of these young people have received philanthropy themselves. As part of the mentorship programme, they are partnered with an older mentor in the community who provides them with support. Over the last few months, Bennett encouraged the young people to engage in volunteering work as a way to build confidence, feel good about themselves and feel more powerful.
“It’s something therapeutic for them in being able to be on the other side, where they are giving help to other people. It makes them feel very happy,” she said.
One of the volunteers involved in the scheme (who wanted to remain anonymous) said: “I learned many things from volunteering, like how to help people and give them positive energy, make them happy and they make me [happy] as well, with their kind hearts.”
The programme includes 16 volunteers altogether. Bennett is hoping to set up more regular volunteering opportunities for the young people in future and build on the connections between mentors and their mentees.
David Salmon, from Volunteering Matters, said despite the “challenges and hardships” these young people faced, “they wanted to do something in the local community […] It gives them a purpose, gets them out. There is something really powerful about giving back.”
“Volunteering helped me a lot,” added Bennett. “It gave me a reason to get up in the morning.”
Previously, Bennett supported a food distribution charity by delivering freshly baked bread during the pandemic. She explained that it made her feel less helpless and more settled and calm. “I think a lot of people have wanted to find something to do, partly because they want to help and partly to calm their own fears and anxieties.”
