It’s National Volunteers Week, an annual celebration of the contribution that people make through volunteering across the UK. To celebrate, we’re shining a light on some of the fantastic volunteering contributions made by our employee-owners.
Our volunteers play a key role by delivering positive impact through community-based rehabilitation projects that help to restore faith in the criminal justice system on the ground. We are very proud to have achieved the Investing in Volunteers Award (IiV), the UK’s quality standard for excellence in volunteer management as the justice and social care division of the Seetec Group.
Elizabete Ivante is a Volunteer Coordinator based in Sussex, whose role involves allocating mentors to domestic abuse perpetrators who will be undergoing work with local support agencies and a rehabilitative intervention provided by us. Before Elizabete started working for Interventions Alliance, she was a volunteer herself. She realised the importance of the service that we provided and how that could positively impact not only our participant’s lives, but those around them and the wider community.
Elizabete said: “Becoming a volunteer was probably one of the best things I have ever done. It made me feel like I was doing something to better the world and I realised that helping one person can have a ripple effect. It was an incredibly rewarding experience.”
Amy, one of our current volunteers, said: “Volunteering with Interventions Alliance has been rewarding and enlightening. Through my volunteer mentor role I have gained valuable experience working with participants, and it has allowed me to work within a great team of people with a vast variety of experience and skills.
“Recently I have been supporting a participant regarding accommodation. The participant was given ten sessions and together we went through the independent living booklet, which provided help with budgeting, types of tenancies, tenants/landlords rights and information on benefits. By supporting the participant, it helped them to feel more confident about having their own home again.”
Suki Binning, Interventions Alliance Chief Social Worker/Executive Director of Justice, Social Care and Skills at Seetec, added: “Volunteers carry out a tremendous amount of work as a core part of our team that is committed to supporting people with a criminal past to build better futures and wellbeing. The level of support we are able to provide would not be possible without them. I’d like to thank all of our volunteers for the incredible work that they do.”
National Volunteers Week takes place between 1st – 7th June in the UK. To find out more about it visit volunteersweek.org