My Nonprofit Reviews

My daughter, Hannah is 17 years old and has Aspergers syndrome. She wanted to do something useful during my summer holidays and thought she would like to volunteer. When she decided she wanted to volunteer I got in touch with the wonderful people at JVN and explained the issues. They put me in touch with Marilyn whose job it is to help volunteers who have any special needs. She rang me and we had a long chat about Hannah and what help she would need. Then Marilyn rang Hannah and arranged to meet her at a local coffee shop to talk about her needs and what type of volunteering she wanted to do. Marilyn and Hannah decided that the best post for her was at a Jewish Care Old Age home. Marilyn went with her on the first day and introduced her to the staff. She stayed for the morning and worked alongside Hannah to make sure she was OK and understood what she needed to do. Marilyn also explained to the staff the nature of Hannah’s difficulties and the support she would need. She got regular feedback on Hannah’s progress and kept me up to date. Hannah volunteered for a total of 6 weeks in 2 different homes. She had a wonderful time and got on well with the staff and residents. She did a wide variety of jobs, including helping to feed the residents, and helping them to play Bingo. Both homes have asked her to go back during my winter holidays and she hopes to do so. Hannah had a wonderful time volunteering. She learned a lot and really gained in confidence. We were so happy that she was enabled to do so and so proud of what she achieved. She is now thinking of working with the elderly as a career. I have also volunteered for JVN on an ad hoc basis providing governance training.

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