By Olivia, Fundraising and Corporate Volunteering Officer
Hi! My name’s Olivia and I’m the Fundraising Assistant here at Providence Row. As well as support the wider Fundraising team, a big part of my role is to oversee our brilliant Corporate Volunteering Programme.
Volunteers are at the heart of Providence Row’s work supporting homeless and vulnerable people in East London. We invite local companies to give their staff the opportunity to join us for anywhere between a couple of hours to a whole day to support the charity and those we work with.
Volunteering activities often sit in hand with our Learning and Wellbeing programme, so volunteers might be skill-sharing in English, IT and employability workshops or just bringing bags of enthusiasm and being a source of encouragement in creative and wellbeing focused sessions like Music Group or Art. Sometime corporate teams even step into the shoes of our trainees in the Gardening and Lunch Challenges!
I love my role working with so many people from a variety of backgrounds, and having the chance to tell them all about the work we do tackling the root causes of homelessness - and then letting them join in and see for themselves what we’re doing!
Volunteers’ support is really valued in this organisation and I think they can see why just from the impact they make by giving a couple of hours of their time. Providence Row wouldn’t be the same without volunteers.
Some of the things our volunteers said about their experience with us:
“Feeling really valued in how my skills were able to assist someone with a real need.”
“Helping both guys was great; one guy passed a test and another set up a gmail account!”
“I really enjoyed the fact that all walks of life came together for a couple of hours.”