Volunteering with older people in the local community
It is well documented that many older people suffer from isolation due to lack of local family or other support to allow them to maintain independence in their later years. Those in care homes may be widowed and have no regular visitors outside of the care home staff who care for them.
Through a range of volunteering opportunities offered to Trinity students throughout the academic year, the School hopes to support the work of the local organisations, alleviate some of the pressures they may be facing through our aging population, as well as give the students the chance to grow their own confidence and engage with the community.
Volunteering opportunities are offered through one of two mechanisms:
- Field Day: one day a term where older students spend the day volunteering locally
- Sixth Form Diploma: six weeks each for the Lower and Upper Sixth students spending one afternoon a week volunteering locally.
Aims
There are two main aims of this work:
1. To support an improvement in the quality of life for older people in the local community.
2. To provide an opportunity for Trinity Students to ‘give back’ to their local community, and to grow their listening and communication skills, their confidence and to be more socially integrated.
The immediate beneficiaries are the older people in the local community along with the organisations the School supports are we aim to alleviate some of the pressures on their time and services.
Background
Trinity School has long standing relationships (ten+ years) with a number of organisations in the local area that exist to support older people through accommodation or other services. We are all too aware of the increasing need to support older people with the country’s aging population, and the increased pressure on each of those services. We are constantly researching the local area to assess whether any additionally identified needs could be supported through our volunteering programmes.
Resources
The Head of Community Action, manages relationships with the named organisations and is responsible for the arrangements for placements during both Field Days and Sixth Form Diploma sessions.
The Director of Co-Curricular Activities, oversees Field Days in their entirety with volunteering forming part of the day for two year groups.
Claire worked closely with the Head of Diploma, regarding all sixth form placements: the volunteering aspect forms just one element of the Diploma.
Other members of teaching staff are involved during the volunteering placements. For Field Days, students are accompanied by 1-3 members of staff, depending on the size of group.
In Sixth Form, students are not accompanied to placements by staff, and the additional staff involvement is limited to the registration of students before going offsite. This is five teaching staff for approximately 30 minutes each week.
The costs associated with any of the placements are either for Field Days if additional minibuses have to be hired, or for Sixth Form volunteering, the payment of minibus drivers. For each year this is a cost of £200-£300.
Impact
The following numbers of students attended each organisation through the course of the 2018-19 academic year:
Neighbourhood Care Groups Number of students
Addiscombe Neighbourhood Care Association 2
Croham Hurst Good Neighbours 2
Selsdon Contact 2
Shirley Neighbourhood Care Scheme 2
Residential, Care and Sheltered Homes Number of students
The British Home 19
Coloma Court 6
Fellows Court 20
Hall Grange 38
Red Court 2
Whitgift House 18
Wilhelmina House 19
Other organisations Number of students
Purley Cross Centre 3
In 2018-19, a total of 507 placements were undertaken as part of the three Field Days. 113 of these placements were in the organisations listed above.
In 2018-19, a total of 109 placements were undertaken as part of the Sixth Form Diploma. 20 of these were in the organisations listed above.
Based on these numbers, the 2018-19 academic year saw 22% of or placements being fulfilled at the organisations listed above who are all working with older people.
Most of our impact can be shown by feedback that is received from placements during and after the event:
Examples of feedback received from the organisations include:
Thank you for last week, the residents really enjoyed having the boys in for the day.
They were interacting with the residents and and joining in with the activities during the day.
A real joy to have them in and yes we would be happy to have them in on the 28th of June.
Once again on behalf of the Residents, Staff and Management we would like to thank the Boys and Trinity school for this opportunity It has been wonderful.
[Hall Grange]
I just like to say that the residents really enjoyed the students joining them for lunch, the staff commented on how they interacted well with them. We had a good afternoon the Students hosted a quiz afternoon each of the students were in teams with residents it was very competitive but fun, the teacher joined in the team that hadn’t scored any points, they ended up losing but only by ½ a point. We are looking forward to next year.
[Whitgift House]
Pupil Involvement
Volunteering placements are arranged for students as follows:
Field Days
Autumn and Spring Terms: Years 10 and 11 (age 14-16)
Summer Term: Years 9 and 10 (age 13-15)
Sixth Form volunteering is undertaken by 16-18 year olds.
Frequency
All programmes are repeated annually, with frequency differing between each type of organisation as follows.
Neighbourhood Care Groups and Purley Cross Centre:
Six afternoons in the Autumn Term (Lower Sixth) and six afternoons in the Spring Term (Upper Sixth)
Care Homes (and similar):
One day at each every term
Six afternoons in the Autumn Term (Lower Sixth) and six afternoons in the Spring Term (Upper Sixth)