Volunteering at Stonecroft House

Volunteers are a vital part of helping our residents to achieve some of the things that you and I take for granted.

Volunteering your services for just a few hours a week can be very rewarding, not just for the residents, but also for you.

As a volunteer you can get involved with lots of activities that we plan for our residents. Escorting a resident on outings and theatre visits, this may just be pushing a wheelchair or assisting someone to go shopping. Help with IT, assisting residents working on a computer and much more. You have many skills that we can identify as useful to our residents.

Other voluntary groups that help or have helped at Stonecroft House in the past are:

Weekend Rota
We identified a need for volunteers to assist the residents to have a tea break at the weekends when the usual staff are not present. We recruited a team of five volunteers who work on a rota, Saturdays & Sundays from 10.30 am for approximately one hour to serve tea/coffee and biscuits to the residents and also to help those who need assistance. This has now developed into not only a tea break, but a social gathering of the residents and the volunteers involved.

Brigg Rotary Club
The Brigg Rotary Club help Stonecroft House in many ways. The Rotarians of Brigg take our residents on a yearly outing once a year, in 2003 they visited The Deep in Hull for the day, having lunch out. They also come to Stonecroft House once a year to prepare and serve tea to all the residents.

Tuesday Club
The Tuesday Club call at Stonecroft House every week on a Thursday, (yes I did say a Thursday) to meet the residents and socialise with them. This is a time when residents can just sit and have a chat or have someone read to them if they are unable to do this for themselves.

Scunthorpe Lions & Winterton Lions
In 2002 we organised a sponsored countryside walk, one of seven miles and one of nine miles. These were arranged to coincide with the National Leonard Cheshire Week in October. The Lions where very supportive by collecting sponsors for these walks and in 2003 we had thirty five walkers, who collected just under £1600.00.

Barton upon Humber Rotary Club
Built and presented an aviary for the residents. Over the years we have had some success in the birds breeding and to date we have four canaries and eight finches.

Grimsby Rotary club
Built a raised wildlife pond, providing the materials and labour for this project.

The above list of organisations are just some that have helped Stonecroft House. There are many individuals, companies and organisations who have given freely of their time to Stonecroft House in the past. We are truly grateful for this, but hope that you do realise that it would be impossible to mention every single one on this page.

For further information on becoming a volunteer please contact John Simpson our volunteers coordinator by e-mail or use the contact details given on the "Contact Stonecroft House" page.

John Simpson volunteers coordinator at Stonecroft House

Volunteers coordinator John Simpson

John Simpson, Volunteer & Fundraising Co-ordinator at Stonecroft House.

I started working for the Leonard Cheshire foundation in March 1999 as a part time Activities assistant.

I later found out that I was the first person with a disability to be employed at Stonecroft House and this meant that some small alterations had to be done, such as a toilet downstairs and a special chair for me to use.

By 2001 I was working 4 days a week, still in the activities room when the opportunity arrived to become a Volunteers Co-ordinator for just 4 hours a week, this was included in the 4 days a well I was already working.

In 2002 the volunteer co-ordinator position became a job in its own right and was for 1 day a week, this meant reducing my work load in the activity room.

By 2004 there was a big change within the Leonard Cheshire foundation. I left the activity room to enable me to work 2 full days a week as Volunteer Co-ordinator, this was now a new position. I continued to do this when the opportunity to do an extra half day a week as Fundraising Co-ordinator came up.

From 1st September 2006 I will be taking on more work as the Enhanced Regional Volunteer Co-ordinator until March 2007. This will involve supporting the Volunteer Co-ordinators in three other LC homes, in Fleet at Spalding and Leicestershire. I will also be supporting our Regional Volunteer Support Manager and hopefully doing some training events for volunteers. This is a great opportunity to take volunteering a step forward and also to increase the awareness of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation and it’s Work.