National Volunteers’ Week 2014
The first week in June is National Volunteers’ Week (1-7 June 2014), which is an annual celebration of the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK.
This year is the 30th anniversary of Volunteers’ Week and GMW’s Chair, Alan Maden would like to personally thank the Trust’s volunteers for the invaluable role they play helping patients.
Alan Maden, Trust Chair, said: “I’m wholeheartedly supportive of the volunteer programme and all the volunteers we have at the Trust because, as a former volunteer for St Ann’s hospice in Salford, I believe passionately in the importance of what they do and understand the support they provide not only to our staff but to our patients too.
“On behalf of the Trust, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful GMW volunteers for their generosity, hard work and commitment to our inpatient wards, community services and alcohol and drug teams. Without their help, GMW would not be able to provide the much needed help to older isolated people via our befriending service and extra support to hospital patients, visitors and staff throughout the community.”
Services and initiatives that are vital to the running of our country simply wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for volunteers. There are thousands of volunteers in the NHS and the Trust has hundreds of volunteers and a range of roles open to volunteers.
These roles range from facilitating courses at our Recovery Academy, assisting with administration, meeting new patients and helping them to attend key hospital appointments, running therapeutic activities like arts, crafts and dance classes or simply taking the time to sit and chat to patients who may not have any family or friends to visit.
If you are inspired to find out more about the interesting and rewarding voluntary work available, please contact Tracy Collard, CARE Hub Lead, on Tel: 0161 772 3935, email: volunteering@gmmh.nhs.uk or visit the Volunteering page of our site.
Every year, over 20 million people across England and the UK volunteer, donating more than 100 million hours to their communities every week. It has been estimated that the economic value of this activity is worth in excess of £40 billion to our economy.
A volunteering role is unpaid and can range from two hours to a few days a week, depending on the volunteer's other commitments.
