In light of National Volunteer Week this week, we wanted to share some of the amazing ways that our fantastic Timigos have supported their communities. At Timico, we provide 24 hours of paid volunteering leave to our employees annually. In this blog we’ll share some of the ways our team have used this leave, as well as providing some suggested charities that you could support at this difficult time.

Prior to lockdown, Faye Hemingway, a Business Analyst at Timico, made great use of her volunteering hours, dedicating her time by splitting her hours across various charities. Some of Faye’s time was spent walking greyhounds at her local ex-racer re-homing centre in Sutton-on-Trent. Faye would help exercise the dogs and carry out routine checks by visiting homes to chat to potential adopters to ensure that the rescue dogs were going to a safe and loving home. Who wouldn’t want to spend the day with dogs?
 

 
While shelters aren’t looking for a helping hand at the moment, organisations such as the RSPCA or Battersea are actively encouraging volunteers to sign-up to the mailing list so that they can let potential volunteers know when their vacancies re-open.

Faye also spent some time with the charity Marie Curie. Marie Curie give care and support to patients and families through terminal illness, and last year they cared for over 4000 people. Throughout her time volunteering for this amazing course, Faye did three collections in her local supermarket and managed to raise around £50 an hour for the charity. Well done Faye!

Of course, there are so many other incredible charities that help the terminally or seriously ill too, for example: Alzheimer’s Volunteers, Helen & Douglas and the Rainbow Trust to name a few.

Last year, Faye and Paul Richardson also joined a team of volunteers working at a homeless shelter in Newark-on-Trent, where Timico’s HQ is located. Faye and Paul would help with preparing and providing food and hot drinks, all donated by Newark Food Bank. They also took turns to do the nightly watch, to make sure that there were no issues throughout the night for those that needed a rest in a comfortable and safe environment. Other great charities such as the Salvation Army and Crisis.org also help the homeless. If you wanted to help people in your local area, you can search ‘Help the homeless in my area’ via Google, and a whole list of local charities and initiatives will come up.

Sadly, for thousands of people, homelessness doesn’t stop just because a pandemic is happening. Fortunately, charities like Crisis.org and the Salvation Army are still working tirelessly to combat homelessness during this time. They work with a range of organisations to ensure that people experiencing homelessness have somewhere to self-isolate and a safe place to sleep. Currently, there are open volunteer roles that include delivering food to the vulnerable, preparing food in the shelters and providing remote support to clients.

Speaking of delivering food to the vulnerable, one of our Timigos stepped up again when, during lockdown, 1.5million people were told to stay at home and ‘shield’ from the Coronavirus, and were unable to safely do their own food shopping. Sarah Kelly, in the Timico Marketing Team, enrolled with her local Wokingham Borough Volunteer Centre to help deliver food packages to the vulnerable. After stuffing her boot full of necessities, she drove off to deliver a (socially distanced) shop of donated goods to six vulnerable citizens in her local area. While this may have been a very small act of kindness, it still enabled those individuals to remain shielded and keep safe during this time.