I volunteer for my local theatre company
I’d been thinking about volunteering for a while. As a lone parent of a three-year-old, with no family nearby, I felt I was getting a bit isolated and my confidence had dropped. I passed the window of the local Volunteer Centre and saw that Theatre Hebrides was looking for a volunteer administrator. When I went into the Volunteer Centre to enquire about it they were helpful, friendly and the process was very straightforward. I gave them my details and later that day they phoned back to say they had arranged for me to see someone at the Theatre. That meeting, which was a brief informal interview, took place a few days later and the following week I was a volunteer!
The whole experience has been great, it’s given me a lot of my confidence back and I’ve been able to use my old skills as well as learning some new once such as the technical aspects of Equity contracts.
Theatre Hebrides treat their volunteers very well and I feel very much like one of the team – I’m always mentioned in publicity material and they’re always telling me they can’t do without me!
My volunteering has been hugely positive. It’s started as a building block and I feel I will be ready to start work again when my daughter goes to nursery and then school. It’s helped me build contacts in the community and I now feel very involved in both the cultural and business life in Stornoway.
