Dartford Giving

By Kate Hargreaves

Going forward, I’m going to change Dartford Giving a bit, and I wanted to use this month’s article to tell you how and why.

I originally came up with the idea to write about volunteering roles during the first lockdown in 2020, when I (virtually) met a girl who had been furloughed from her job in retail and was considering becoming a charity trustee to fill her time until she went back to work. It was fantastic that she wanted to use her furloughed time to help others, but being a trustee for only a few months wasn’t realistic. It made me think that there must be a lot of people interested in giving their time to charitable causes but might not be aware of opportunities around them or might not have access to the right information about those opportunities. And so Dartford Giving was born.

I’ve been writing about voluntary roles since the August 2020 issue of Dartford Living. In that time I have received a few emails about the positions I’ve written about (as well as one email from an ex-boyfriend who thought it would be a good way to reconnect, but let’s not go into that!), and I hope that other readers may have also started volunteering after seeing a Dartford Giving article. There are plenty of voluntary roles that I haven’t yet written about, and I’ll write about more of these in future. If you are part of a local cause and would like me to write about an associated voluntary role, please email me at kate@dartfordliving.com. However, instead of continuing to write about a new role every month, I’m going to occasionally re-visit some roles I’ve already written about, as it might be that someone interested missed it the first time round, or maybe when you first read about a role it didn’t suit your lifestyle or skillset but your circumstances might have changed since then.

And what will I be doing with the extra time in the months where I’m re-using an old Dartford Giving article? Well, just as the idea for Dartford Giving came from a way I thought I could help people like that furloughed girl, since writing the articles I have noticed some formatting inconsistencies, so I’m going to join the Dartford Living proofreading team. If there is something you’re not happy with, I really urge you to try to do something about it. What’s the worst that can happen?

I hope that the Dartford Giving articles so far have shown you that there really is something out there for everyone. As I’ve repeatedly written about, as well as making the world a slightly better place, volunteering really does make you feel good about doing good and can teach you new skills, plus you can make new friends at the same time. So if you’re feeling inspired or just intrigued, why not add volunteering to your list of New Year’s resolutions?

Finally, I hope you have a great end to 2021 and a Happy New Year!