RSVP West Region: Many Ways of Caring

Jump to content

RSVP is the only national body that provides volunteering opportunities for the over-50s

YOUNG AND OLD TOGETHER

PROJECT SNAPSHOTS

INDIVIDUALS: JOIN US!

MANY WAYS OF CARING

The range of projects with which RSVP West becomes involved is as broad as people's needs and the interests and skills of the local organisers ...

Violet Luton is serving a customer with coffee at the tea bar in the magistrates court in Yate. THE LAW AND THE COFFEE A group of volunteers, under the direction of the local RSVP organiser Violet Luton, seen serving a customer, operate a tea bar every weekday morning that provides refreshments and light snacks for lawyers, police, security staff and witnesses attending the magistrates court in Yate, South Gloucestershire.

THORNBURY COMMUNITY GARDEN The new community garden in Thornbury is taking shape. The Garden is a community venture supported by a team of volunteers. The original was forced to close in January 2007 but is being recreated in a derelict plot alongside the new community building. So far the team have cleared the site and laid foundations, added top soil, built the main pathway and hard landscaping areas and are due to start planting. It is hoped it will be open to the public in Summer 2008. The Garden will be open to everyone, including wheelchair users and the disabled. See the project’s own home page.

RSVP volunteer Victor helps two MS patients to their homes in Weston-super-Mare. MEDICAL HELP RSVP volunteers in Nailsea are kept busy making regular weekly collections of prescriptions for housebound local residents. The local doctors also take advantage of this service during their house calls by leaving prescriptions with patients; the surgery contacts the local volunteer team who collect the prescriptions and deliver the medication. Elsewhere in Nailsea, RSVP West volunteer drivers (such as Victor, right) are helping the local multiple-sclerosis therapy centre by transporting MS sufferers for treatment.

Patrick Williams. HELPING COUPLES Local organiser Patrick Williams acts as liaison for the family contact centre in Swindon, formerly a part of the WRVS but now operated under the aegis of RSVP West. Couples with marital problems can leave their children under the safe supervision of volunteers there while they sort out their differences.

Shirley Stark. EASING THE LOAD Shirley Stark organises a group of volunteers at one of the Bristol Abbeyfield homes to cook the main meal of the day for the elderly residents when the housekeeper has her weekly day off. She also organises trips out for the residents.