Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Volunteering...Do it today!
I popped up to Bruce Castle Museum today and poked my head round the door of the Volunteers Fair, but not before I'd had a chat with Renee of Filling the Gap, a social enterprise that serves healthy affordable home-made food on Thursdays and Fridays in Terront Rd at the Salvation Army Hall. Today they were providing the refreshments for the Fair
I had a lovely quiche and salad with an apple juice for £4 and took two delicious Rocky Road cakes home to the kids who were most enthusiastic in their praise.
They're having a barbecue on Friday 14th and I'm going to try and get to it. Hope some of you can join me?
Suitably replenished, I went to meet some of the volunteer groups at the Fair. First I stopped to have a chat with Phil from HAVCO. Phil runs the Supported Volunteer programme which helps people who might need extra help to get into volunteering because their circumstances are particularly difficult, for example being an ex-offender, have mental health issues or are a refugee. If that's you or someone you know, Phil can be contacted on philp@havcoharingey.org.uk or 020 8880 4086
I also met other HAVCO folk including a HOL member (we are everywhere) and was asked to contribute to their board (I volunteer 2 days a week) about why volunteering is a good thing to do.
HAVCO (Haringey Volunteer Centre) can guide you to a volunteering situation to suit you. You can phone them on 020 8880 4032 or check for volunteering opportunities at www.do-it.org.uk
There were lots of organisations covering all sorts of interests at the fair but I got chatting to Oscar from St Mungo's which has two places in Haringey. They are looking for people both to do admin or to come and help out by mentoring, supporting people or offering skills. If you think you could help, Oscar can be contacted on 020 8809 5742
Finally, it was a pleasure to talk to a volunteer from Home-Start who was very enthusiastic about the volunteering she does supporting families who may have extra needs. She explained that her role was mainly to listen, help out in practical ways like going shopping with someone with young kids and to offer friendship. All volunteers get a 10 week course to prepare and give about 3 hours a week. They are based in Tower Gardens. If you're a parent or have caring experience and think that you'd like to volunteer, contact them on 020 8352 4151 or email info@home-start-haringey.org
So if you're thinking about volunteering and, as this is National Volunteers Week, maybe www.do-it.org.uk today!
Tags for Forum Posts: HAVCO
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Josephine on
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Hi Liz
Another HoLer (me) was at Bruce Castle today.
Sorry I missed you. I was there for Haringey Women's Forum.
I posted earlier in the week on HoL that we are currently recruiting volunteers.
http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/women-volunteers-wanted...
@HaringeyWomensF
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Oh Josephine, my apologies. I think I walked past you. Time was against me and I didn't get time to chat to everyone. Hope that you get some volunteers for your project.
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No need to apologise :) It just amused me that there were at least three HoLers (that we know about) at one event.
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I am a big fan of Filling the Gap too. Not only do they have delicious food (Renee is a very talented chef), it's also made completely fresh from surplus supermarket food - i.e. food that would otherwise be thrown out. They may also have been too busy to tell you, but the superb organic apple juice you had was actually made from apples picked by cafe volunteers. Amazing! To go back to your theme, they also have lots of volunteering opportunities at the cafe itself, so it's a good place to get trained in cooking, customer service, etc. They even offer first-aid training, I believe.
Oh, yes, and they have toys for the kids to play with (kids eat very cheaply, and there are deals for OAPs too). If you're too busy to stay, they even do take-aways in biodegradable containers.
[Disclaimer: I am trying to help publicise the cafe, but only because I think it's great and want to help make it a success, because it is so deserved. I am not being paid - alas no-one is at the moment. Once they do make a profit, it will be ploughed back into the community through cookery and other courses. Even if none of this matters to you, go along anyway because the food really is genuinely yummy.]
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Permalink Reply by renee taylor on
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Thank you Gina O ! We really are so lucky with the supportive and generous customers we have who really appreciate what we are doing !!
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Thanks for popping in Liz, and thanks for the lovely write up! We were really chuffed with the event and all the enthusiasm for volunteering - we had about 90 people through the doors on Friday afternoon.
Big thanks to Renee and Josephine for taking part!
Joanne (HOLer & Volunteer Centre person!)
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Hi,
I just wanted to say a very big thank you to everyone who came a long to the event last week. It was so great to speak to not only the amazing organisations who attended, but also to so many people interested in using their skills and learning new skills through volunteering.
We were running the Girlguiding stall and had lots of fantastic conversations with people who remembered going to a local Rainbow, Brownie, Guide or Senior Section Unit as they were growing up and were keen to give something back as well as people who hadn't heard of Girlguiding, but were keen to create new opportunities for children and young people in Haringey.
We also met some wonderful organisations who were keen to do joint projects with us in 2013. Thank you - we'll be in touch very soon!
If anyone is interested in finding out more about volunteering with us visit: www.girlguiding.org.uk/interested
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