What impact can volunteering have on people’s lives?

Imagine you are an elderly person who finds it difficult to leave the house. Someone comes once a week to bring you some library books to read. How do you think you feel about these visits? Starter Cyril Barnes – Books-on-Wheels

A charity of 35,000 Volunteers … Working alongside hospitals, local authorities and other organisations, providing much-needed support for older people. Helping older people stay active, independent and able to continue to contribute to society with practical and emotional support.. What is Royal Voluntary Service? … with its roots in local communities all over Britain.

Oral History listening memories stories archive transcript transcription tradition recording opinion views voice audio memory narrative narrator interviewee interviewer collection

Voices of Volunteering: 75 years of citizenship and service Royal Voluntary Service’s 2 year oral history project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund In this lesson we will look at the impact volunteering can have on people’s lives Over 80 volunteers shared their stories Focusing on WVS/WRVS volunteers A wide variety of experiences, services and subjects Looking at change, benefits, individuals and society

Objectives To describe the roles played by voluntary groups in society, and the ways in which citizens work together to improve their communities (statutory KS3 citizenship) To describe the different ways in which a citizen can contribute to the improvement of his or her community (statutory citizenship KS4) To respond to the questions and views of others, adapting talk appropriately to context and audience. (GCSE AQA English)

Your tasks You will listen to some oral history clips about the different services volunteers have provided in the past for older people. For each one there will be some questions to answer.

Barbara Sparks: Clothing 1.What service did this WRVS store provide? 2.Give an example from the clip of people who might have needed this service. 3.Think of two more examples of how this might have been used. 4.What types of clothes do you think people who came into the store wanted? 5.What types of clothes do you think were mostly donated?

Judith Kenna: Clothing 1.What service did this lady get involved in for WRVS? 2.Describe what happened when someone donated a designer suit to an WRVS Clothing Store. 3.Make a list of all the people involved in this situation. 4.For each person say how they felt about what had happened. 5.How could each person justify their actions?

Role play You are going to script and act out a role play of what happened when the lady who had donated the designer suit found out it had been recycled to raise funds for much needed items of clothing.

Role play: the roles Beatrice Jenkins – the lady who donated the designer suit expecting it to be given to people who came into the WRVS Clothing Store Carol Hemmings – the Clothing Store Organiser Joan Taylor – the person who decided to recycle the designer suit at the vintage clothing shop to raise money to buy children’s underwear for the store. Jack Davies – a person who found it hard to afford clothing and came into the WRVS branch and was given some second hand T- shirts. Jackie Bennett – a person who came into the branch and got given an old suit that enabled her to go to a job interview.

Role play You are going to script and act out a role play of what happened when the lady who had donated the designer suit came to complain at the RVS branch. Get into groups of 4 or 5. Assign each person a role. Each person needs to think about what key points they need to get across in the play. Think about what your character would be feeling and how they would react to the other people in the group. Work as a group to draft the lines to the play. Rehearse and make any amendments that are needed.

Role play Listen to your classmates perform their role plays

Analyse Imagine that you are the Chairman of the WRVS in the 1980s and you have been asked to decide what should happen when people donate expensive items. You need to write a statement that Clothing Stores can use in the future telling them what to do if designer clothes get donated to their Office. Think about the different roles and emotions that you have listened to. Think about the benefits to each individual of what happened. Is there a way that everyone could have been happy with what happened? What is the best outcome for the people needing clothes?

Compare Margaret Miller: Fundraising 1.How does this women describe raising money for WRVS? 2.What did she do with the money? 3.How would the people who received the benefit of this feel? 4.Compare this method of making money with the recycling of vintage clothes, is there any differences in the ways the money is made? 5.Which do you think the donors would feel most happy with and why? This clip describes a different way of generating funds for WRVS, as you listen think about how this is different to the recycling the designer clothes.

Finally Volunteers should be able to decide how items donated to a charity are used. Everyone should donate time or money to charity if they can It doesn’t matter how money is fundraised for a charity as long as is goes to a good cause. If someone donates to charity it should be clear how the donation will be used.

Voices of Volunteering – 75 Year of Citizenship and Service Royal Voluntary Service Archive & Heritage Collection Unit 1A, Bath Road, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 1XA Telephone ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE Patron: Her Majesty the Queen, Registered office: ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE Beck Court, Cardiff Gate Business Park, Cardiff, CF23 8RP, Registered in England , Registered charity no & SC038924