Case Studies

Chloe Dray was recruited from a recruitment talk followed by a signing up session in the sixth form common room at Hillview School for Girls, a non-selective school. She was already volunteering as a young leader at a Beaver and a Guides group, also at Princess Christian Farm, a work placement for adults with learning disabilities and had previously volunteered at residential homes for the elderly.

She expressed an interest in volunteering at Connect club, a disability project that we run for young people with learning disabilities. After completing a training session, she began work on the project and quickly became the volunteer who tended to lead activities; she wrote letters to the parents when we were running a cultural evening, organizing who brought in different foods etc. She manages the behaviour of one of the participants, a young boy with autistic spectrum disorder, particularly well, encouraging him to participate in activites other than maths based ones!

Chloe attended a training residential and widened her circle of friends within VSU. This came at a time when she was asked to leave school due to behavioural issues. Chloe comes from a dysfunctional family, spending time living with one parent, then the other, then sleeping on friends’ floors and even stayed on her own in a bedsit for a while. Consequently, she was able to increase her volunteering activities and this, in turn, helped her to deal with the other issues going on in her life.

She now volunteers at Sussex Road Reading club and at Wild Wednesdays children’s club. I really feel that VSU and volunteering have helped Chloe to cope with issues in her life and have given her a focus for her intelligence, liveliness and leadership skills. She is an excellent volunteer.