Volunteering Matters and Stockton Leaving Care Team July 2019
Good news story from Volunteering Matters:
We invited young mums to come along with their children to enjoy a soft play session and to also have some professional photos taken by Fiza who was kindly loaned to us by Catalyst an organisation who work hard to support the voluntary sector in Stockton.
The Grandmentors project* was represented by myself (Debbie Wilson) as the co-ordinator and three of our volunteers
We started off with tea, coffee, juice and initial introductions and then it soon became apparent that the children being full of beans needed to get into the soft play area. The Mums and Volunteers all got involved in the Play Barn and it was great fun. Fiza our photographer did a great job of getting some lovely photos of the little ones playing and posing! This seemed to be a real highlight for the Mums who will all receive printed copies of the photos once we have them ready.
After all of the excitement we enjoyed a buffet lunch and continued to chat and socialise. This gave our Volunteers the opportunity to get to know the Mums with a view to potentially offering them future support in their roles as Grandmentors. It was lovely to see an already matched Mum and her volunteer enjoying the afternoon together and having fun.
This was a real success and everyone really enjoyed it. One of the Leaving Care staff commented on how nice it was to spend time with the Mums in a relaxed setting and to see how well they are doing with their children.
*National charity Volunteering Matters are working with Stockton Leaving Care Team on the Grandmentors project, a unique mentoring project matching older volunteers (50+) to Care Leavers.