Julie's Journey with Wirral Mencap: From volunteering to paid employment

The story of how Julie found a new path after volunteering with Wirral Mencap

There are so many different reasons why people decide to volunteer. It could be to make friends and socialise, to build their confidence, to give back to their community or to contribute to an organisation that has helped them or someone they know. Volunteering is a fabulous way to gain hands on experience, build a stronger CV, network and meet professionals, make connections and even allow you to explore a different career path. In fact, a common scenario when volunteering is being able to gain invaluable experience, skills and knowledge for a future paid role within an organisation.

When speaking to volunteers who took this route to employment, many have stated that it was a little like 'try before you buy'. Not only is volunteering a chance to gain knowledge but also it is a opportunity for you to see if your chosen career is a good fit for you and what you expected.

Meeting Julie

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Julie at Wirral Mencap for a chat to find out about her journey and how volunteering led to her employment. Julie has worked for Mencap for 8 years now and was kind enough to tell me about how her volunteer role changed her career path.

Julie had been a secondary school Geography teacher for 35 years when, in 2015 after considering the changing role of teaching, she came to the decision to take an early retirement. After a career in such a demanding job and now with spare time on her hands, Julie wanted to contribute to her community in some sort of volunteer role... But where and how? After searching the internet for voluntary opportunities, she discovered Wirral Mencap.

An opportunity that particularly caught her eyes was their Buddying service. Julie hadn't worked with adults before, but could see the skills she had in teaching would transfer well into a role working with the adults that Wirral Mencap supported. So in October 2015, Julie took the leap and applied to be a Volunteer Buddy.

After the onboarding process was complete, Julie soon met the woman who she had been partnered up with, and soon was able to support with shopping trips, which her buddy loved! Shortly after, Julie began to introduce and engage her with other new activities and days out such as trips to museums and the Lady Lever Art Gallery. She said "it was amazing to see [my] buddy gain confidence and independence". Julie found that the role was not only suited to her and her skills, but also hugely rewarding. Contributing to and witnessing the development and achievements of her buddies was the driving force behind everything she did while volunteering.

As time went on, and many buddies later, Julie increased her volunteering with Wirral Mencap to include running the lunch club, manning the front desk, answering phones and assisting with administration. This gave her a real insight in to the processes within the organisation and when a job became available in February 2017 for a Personal Development Mentor, 16 months after she had first volunteered, she quickly made the decision to apply. She loved what she was doing as a volunteer and the opportunity to potentially work for the organisation was too good of a chance to miss.

Julie was very humble when telling me that she was "ecstatic and surprised" when she did indeed get the role, but from my perspective it was very obvious why she was successful! The organisation were already aware of her dedication and commitment and they knew first hand of her knowledge and experience. She had, in essence, been gaining and honing skills from the previous 16 months of volunteering to be the perfect candidate.

The Gateway Award

Within Julie's new role she became an important part of the Gateway Award, a unique activity-based award in which people with a learning disability, of any age or ability, can partake in. This allowed her to help participants to get out of their comfort zone, learn new skills and improve health and well-being. Most importantly, while participants are completing an award, they're making plenty of friends and having lots of fun doing it! Julie was now able to support with 1:1 referrals, partner up buddies, assist with registration support and use her outside of the box thinking to develop new and interesting activities when creating individual plans.

While chatting with Julie it was very apparent how much passion and enthusiasm she has for Wirral Mencap and her role there, which she thrives in. She took great pride in telling me about all the people they support, their achievements, their success in the Gateway Award and how rewarding it is to see service users reach their potential.

Then and Now

10 years ago, it all started with a Google search and a desire to contribute to her community following retirement. Fast forward to now, and Julie is an integral part of Wirral Mencap and has became a tremendous support to everyone the organisation supports.

Julie’s journey is a powerful reminder of just how valuable volunteering can be. For many, it's the first step into building confidence, learning new skills and finding a sense of belonging, and in Julie's case, it creates a pathway into meaningful and fulfilling employment where passion and commitment are recognised as vital strengths. Volunteering is not only the backbone of the VCFSE sector, it is often the route through which tomorrow’s staff members, leaders and changemakers emerge, making an impact that lasts far beyond the initial act of giving time.