HELPING IN THE COMMUNITY

As a snapshot of the range of community work with which RSVP becomes involved, that in North Somerset is typical.

Vic Rawlings

The RSVP Area Organiser is Vic Rawlings. He says: “Much of the work that RSVP West does hard to classify because it’s so diverse, but it can be summed up by the phrase community care. It usually involves a volunteer helping somebody, often an elderly person, on a one-to-one basis.

“Providing transport is an especially valuable job — as just one example, we have one 93-year-old man whom we take to the shops every couple of weeks and every fortnight we drive a lady suffering from multiple sclerosis to her clinic in Nailsea. A volunteer might take a person out on a day visit from their nursing home for shopping or just a change of scene to some interesting place, or collect prescriptions for a housebound person.

“Social services often ask us to assist with DIY, even simple things like changing light

RSVP West volunteer Ian with staff at
the pharmacy from which he collects prescriptions for housebound people.

bulbs that elderly housebound people can’t manage for themselves; these are often one-off tasks — in a recent case, we were asked to move the bedroom furniture downstairs for an elderly person just out of hospital who can’t manage the stairs any more.

“It’s small-scale work that sounds like nothing very special, but to a person in need it makes a great deal of difference. A small time donation from a volunteer is often invaluable, and it’s a great pity that so few people know how much a small regular contribution of time can improve their neighbours’ lives.”

© 2003–08 RSVP West. Page last updated on 10 March 2008.