Introducing the Community Outreach Centre Maidstone!
Hi!
I’m Kate Dickinson, you might know me better as your
friendly neighbourhood Volunteer officer. I started working with Voluntary
Action Maidstone in September 2011 and haven’t looked back since.
My main role has been to run the Community Outreach branches of VAM. We started in the Mall in Maidstone with a brilliantly located Shop where we stayed for 6 successful weeks, we then moved to the Foyer of the Town Hall on Middle Row in Maidstone Town Centre where we still are.
My Volunteers and I are really enjoying the location and atmosphere that comes with working in the Town Hall, when it’s quiet the volunteers get to people watch, check over our footfall & manage my diary and I have a chance to catch up on referring the volunteers I interview here. Some of the Volunteers here in the Town Hall VC have been contacting the organisations who have active opportunities with us to talk about the age range of the volunteers we recruit. My background is in Youth Volunteering and we’re hoping to get more young people in Maidstone engaged with Charities and Voluntary Organisations. We’re tentatively calling this project ‘Youth Action for Community’.
Since I’ve been with VAM I’ve interviewed 165 people, 24 of which were interviewed at the Job Centre Plus (14.6% of total interviews) and others were referred to the Mall Hub or the Town Hall by the JCP. The number of people we interview varies month to month, in October 2011 I interviewed a massive 59 people, whereas in December it was down to 29.
The Town Hall has proved to be a great place for
organisations to run small activities and we’re always keen to work with more
groups. The Foyer isn’t a massive room but there’s enough space for a
fundraising tea party, a group chat, drop in services (we currently have a
Hearing Aid Clinic here once a week), art activities and many others.
Prospective volunteers can drop in or call to make an appointment to go and have a chat about the roles on offer and register.
Open Monday – Friday 10am to 4pm
Telephone 07413 705487 / 07847 959902 volunteercentre@vam-online.org.uk
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