GOOD BY NAME AND NATURE

In reception at Giroscope, Sarah Good Volunteers….but that’s not all she gives time to. She also runs the Volunteer FB page and Volunteer Newsletter. But how did she get here?

"2 years ago I was unable to leave my house. Marie, my case worker from Giroscope, used to come and visit and help. I stayed at home, slept all day and was awake all night. Eventually I joined their cooking project and then I did other things, and now this. I have a routine now and get up for work. Now if I get the wobbles I come here and break the cycle. I don’t sit in the flat. I say NO, I’m going out.

There’s so much more - life is full of possibility. I’m going up. I’ve got better confidence. I’ve got a choice of what to do. I have done incredible. I’m proud of myself. I wouldn’t have imagined I would be doing this and now I want to give something to my community, I want to support other people. I’m hoping people get confidence from talking to me. I live nearby and so maybe people will see that if I can do it they can too. So if you're struggling come in or just get in touch via FB page. We can talk quietly and not in front of everyone."

At Christmas, New Year, oh my, goodness me, I don't know where the people came from. I think they came through the rafters, they came up through the floor. The doors were flung open and the whole community came to our house. It was brilliant. When there was a problem everybody rallied around everybody else. I guess I learnt a lot there.

This shop is my living room, when I'm making the coffee, that's my kitchen. On the farm you open your back door, bacon's cooking, the sponges are getting made and everybody's like “it’s Sunday I’ll just pop over”. That's the same here. The cafe kitchen is the farmhouse kitchen. So yeah it’s probably more about farming than I think.

Acceptance

At the farm we also used to get travelling people, who used to come at potato time. They wouldn't take any money, they would take all the potatoes that they wanted or could. Dad would give them milk and bread and they worked damned hard. So I got to accept them. I think I accept people because of what my Dad taught into me? I was watered and blossomed because of me Dad. I grew and got told what was right and what was wrong. How to deal with people, how to work with people, how to deal with animals, how to deal with this and that. My Dad used to say, “Never do a wrong turn. If you can do a right turn”. Why HU3?

It's a home. It's like my street. I can go from top to bottom and nine times out of 10 I can't go very far without somebody speaking to me. Everybody knows me and that's comforting. It's like I've got 26 mums and 27 dads or something, all watching out for me.

I believe in second chances, for these clothes, for the community, for ourselves. A lot of people say this is a rubbish area and people are worthless. In farming we give land and animals second chances. HU3’s looked after me for 20 years. Why would I kick it in the teeth now? I mean, you wouldn't kick a sheep in the teeth because it suddenly went lame. Instead we pick it up, clean it and take it on.

And what would you say to people that are interested in volunteering?

Make sure you're going into an atmosphere that you're going to enjoy. Don't go into somewhere where it's stuffy and you've just got to stand like this and wait for somebody to tell you what to do. Make sure you're going somewhere where you feel comfortable and they love you.

Talking Magazine

Having featured in Hull & District Talking Magazine with the last issue, EofUs was interested to find out more about this service for the visually impaired. Turns out lots of people give their time to make it happen.

Produced fortnightly, Hull's Talking magazine features articles, taken mainly from the local papers in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Anyone who is unable to read a newspaper due to sight problems or other disabilities, can receive the Talking Magazine. It's currently sent out free of charge to over 200 people and can also be accessed online.

Importantly it's been making news stories more accessible since the 70’s and relies on 20 volunteers who turn up to edit, read, record, copy and dispatch. As a charity they rely totally on donations and receive no formal funding, so every contribution helps.