My name is Frank and I volunteered for over a year, my role was being a Signposter Advisor at the main Headquarters in Woolwich Equitable House, and sometimes outreach to a different location such as Trust Thamesmead (THE LINK building).

My role is to deal with clients of different varieties and with different expectations. I do my best to make the client happy by finding and securing a volunteer placement in the role that they are interested in. Clients usually want to volunteer because they need experience in that area of work in order to get a job, or their reason could be an educational issue, where hours of experience are needed. In some cases it could just be the loving heart of giving back to the local community, meeting new people whilst having fun.

How did I get this role? It all started back in the year 2016. I had just left education but had some personal issues at the time which put any further progress in education on hold, so I needed something to do with my spare time. I came into the VCG building seeking volunteering for myself and booked an appointment to see one of the advisors named Klodian.  When I came in to see him, we had a chat about different opportunities available in Greenwich and we applied online for a few roles. One of the roles was Signposter Advisor at Volunteer Centre Greenwich itself; this was the role I took.

From my time being an advisor I improved my communication skills as an individual. In a lot of ways I boosted my confidence, enthusiasm and intellectual humour when communicating with individuals older than me. The ability to help people in need achieve what they want and find what they are looking for makes me happy and feel motivated. I looked forward to waking up most days to come into volunteer, helping other people in the community secure a voluntary placement themselves.

To conclude, my volunteering experience has helped improve my all-round confidence giving me a chance to try and do something new in an advisor/counselling role and field of administration. I also made a difference in many people’s lives in the community and I'm still being stopped on the street and told about their experiences to date. To be honest I loved doing what I did, had a great time doing it and I'm now in full-time employment.