Ged’s story: What you put in bounces back

Ged was taken aback by their selflessness, inspiring him to think about volunteering opportunities and how he might be able to use his skills to support those around him. 

“There were a couple of things that got me interested in volunteering – at the time there were two year 10 students who did an assembly for every year group on homelessness. They were describing how they went out and were handing out sandwiches to people who were rough sleeping. When I was talking with them, I told them that they were an inspiration and that inspiration works two ways – hopefully as a teacher, you were inspirational to the students, but you learn things from them.”

Around a similar time, a colleague had, instead of sending out Christmas cards, donated to Centrepoint and Ged received a thank you email, which explained a bit about Centrepoint’s work. The combination of his students and colleagues all supporting those in the community experiencing homelessness became a driver for Ged to look for potential volunteering opportunities. 

“I chose Centrepoint because a colleague for Christmas instead of sending out Christmas cards had donated money to Centrepoint, and they then sent us an email or a text message. And that’s how I got to know Centrepoint.” 

After an opportune meeting where he was visiting a local Centrepoint office, he asked about volunteer posts that were currently open. He spoke with the service manager who advised that they did have spaces to fill. He quickly put in his application and got in contact with the volunteer team, where his volunteer journey began. 

“I was delivering some linen to one of the services and I just asked did they have any volunteers and there was a lady there at the time and she gave me the volunteer manager’s details, and the rest is history, so they say.” 

Starting volunteering with Centrepoint

After his application was accepted, he completed an induction and took up a volunteer post at a local supported home, where he stayed for around a year. Another position became available at another supported home, one that specifically supported young parents and their children, and he happily took up the post.

As soon as he arrived at the home, Ged immediately felt like part of the team – feeling valued for not only what he can bring to the role but him knowing about the impact he could help make. 

“It’s absolutely brilliant there. The staff don’t refer to you as a volunteer, which I always consider myself to be. I’ve genuinely felt like I am part of an excellent team.” 

Since starting his volunteering, Ged has seen that no two days are the same – always trying to plan exciting and interesting things for the young parents and their children to be involved with, as well as balancing the educational activities they do together. In collaboration with staff, they planned and took the young people to a farm to make the most of the sunnier weather and give the young people an opportunity to make memories together as a family. 

“We come up with idea and then we look into it and see what we can achieve.”

Working specifically with young parents adds what Ged calls an extra ‘dimension’ making every meeting exciting, fun and memorable. 

“With them having children it makes it such a nice dimension – as they have to look after the young parents and the child, but that extra dimension makes it even more exciting.”

Although a typical day might be hard to envision, especially when supporting young people with children of their own all at different developmental stages, Ged tried to outline what a usual volunteering shift might include.

“I tend to get here in the morning, around 10 or 11 and we have some social time with the young people – whether it’s a coffee morning or supporting the social chef, who does fantastic work with the young people showing them how to cook on a budget. The young people just love that interaction.”

“And then it’s catching up on emails and creating new units or talking about new units that might be helpful for the young people.”

Developing new life skills courses

Something that Ged has been heavily involved with, and has been able to channel his experience as a teacher towards, has been updating and adapting the LifeWise units. These are AQA accredited courses that young people within Centrepoint supported homes can complete to support them to develop independent living skills and feel more confident when they do move on.

After working with the young people, he recognised that many of the units don’t take into account the changes that might happen financially, emotionally and physically for young people looking after children – such as finances needing to stretch to cover different essentials and the potential impact that this could have for them as a family if they were unable to meet these demands.

“With the LifeWise units, we were having to look at adapting them to suit the needs of Young Parents, because many of the units were for single young people. But they have to look after their children. So, with the money for example, money management didn’t consider things like nappies and so on. The adaptions focussed on the consequences for the Young Parents and their children if they failed to pay their bills.”

Together with the staff and with feedback from the young parents, they looked at how these units could be adapted to meet their needs and ensure that they can develop important life skills not only for them, but for their young families.

“It was good because you weren’t just working with the young people, but you were working with the staff and saying, ‘how do we do this?’, ‘how do we rewrite this unit?’. It’s just been another dimension of the work that I do.”

Recognising that these young people might be looking to develop skills in particular areas and might also be first time parents, the team is always on the lookout for ways that they can provide holistic support to the young families.

When the service manager’s daughter came home with a book on preventing accidents, it prompted a discussion on developing these into Lifewise Units. They have created several units on this theme for children at different stages of development, so that the young parents have age-appropriate information for each step of their child’s growth. The units have been well received by the young parents and helped them to further develop their skills around looking after their families.

To help promote the units and encourage young people to get involved, Ged and the team also created a raffle, where they are given  tickets for any positive engagement, be that a social activity, key work or completing a LifeWise unit. 

“One of the things we did just recently was leading up to Easter, we gave them all free entry to a raffle, and they would be given as many tickets as they earnt. So, if they turned up for their key work or do a LifeWise unit, if they get involved in a social activity or something similar, they might get a ticket for each one they did, and it proved a real success. We got a couple of hampers for them and now we are going to try and do it every quarter. It’s motivational for them.”

In recent weeks, Ged has seen a few of the young parents he has been supporting move into their own homes, which he has been glad to be a part of and meant that there has been a lot of new faces in the supported home. Being a part of their development and seeing them taking their steps towards independence, whilst adapting the support he offers to meet their needs, has had a long-lasting impact for them.

“It works – you can see it. You can see them developing and improving all the time.”

Being able to offer the personalised support they need through his volunteering has proven to be vitally important for the young parents, with many frequently coming back to speak with the team and share life updates once they've moved on.

“Quite a few of the young people come back – in fact one of them was at the coffee morning today. There’s still a bond between them and the young people really valued the support they were given at that time. You remember that time with fondness and the fact that they come back shows that.”

The impact of volunteering

Looking back at his experiences of volunteering, and what started him on his journey with Centrepoint as a volunteer, he has been clear that every step towards and during has been a two-way street. 

“Volunteering is a two-way thing. You bring your experience but we’re also learning from the young people. And that’s true of me here – I can see how valuable it is for people to volunteer. And you do get a lot of positive feedback. Whether that is literally people telling you or it’s just something you subconsciously take on board that you are just here for the simple enjoyment of being here.”

When thinking about what he’s enjoyed the most about his experiences of volunteering, he doesn’t feel that there is one thing that’s stood out beyond everything else. For him, just knowing that he is having a positive effect on the lives of these young people is reward enough – and knowing that what he is doing is valued has been the most beneficial thing for him.

“I’ve just enjoyed everything. Everything is valuable and everything is valued – so I wouldn’t put one above the other. Everything does have an impact, whether it’s a positive impact on the staff or the young people and you just enjoy having that effect.”

Ged remembers when he was working as a teacher the impact of the volunteers who gave their time to support the young people and how this stayed with him as a template for how he approached his volunteer work.

“At the school where I worked, we had an award in memory of one of our volunteers which was called the Selfless Giving Award and that’s really what volunteering is. It’s just giving without expecting anything back. 

Setting his cycling challenges

Ged, an avid cycler, brings his passion for riding his bike to those around Centrepoint, promoting different challenges to get people out on their wheels. Inspired by a staff member's August Challenges in 2023 and 2024, Ged invited a group of Centrepoint staff to participate in the All Around the World Cycling Challenge, whereby they collectively and virtually cycled 24,901 miles - the distance around the Earth’s equator! All staff were equally proud of their achievement when they completed the same event in March this year.

He’s already planning his next challenge, seeing how far the team can push themselves for each new thing they tackle. 

“We’re planning our cycling challenge for July to coincide with the Tour De France. We are going to see if we can collectively cycle the same distance as the professionals which is over 2000 miles. Whether we can do that in three weeks is going to be another challenge.”

Looking ahead to 2027, Ged and some of the team in Sunderland, have been looking at setting themselves a huge awareness raising goal by cycling through the towns and cities where there are Centrepoint services. It’s a huge task ahead of them and will take a lot of planning to co-ordinate, but he’s looking forward to setting himself the challenge and seeing what they can achieve.

Recognition for his volunteering

Unbeknownst to Ged, the team had put in an application to Room to Reward to recognise all the hard work and time he had dedicated to his volunteer position. Room to Reward offers volunteers who are giving their time to any charitable organisation a reward of a hotel room for them to book at a location of their choosing for a bit of a well-deserved pamper.

“It was very very surprising and such a nice reward. I knew nothing about it – I was sat in the office and Ceiran came up and said you are needed come downstairs. So, I went down and then got the surprise – it was really lovely.”

“Volunteering is not something you do to get a reward. However, it sums up the staff here and how they genuinely value your contributions. I’ve been lucky because I’ve always worked in departments where it’s been a very collective responsibility and everybody looks out for each other and it’s like that here.” 

He’s already thought about how he might want to use his voucher, spending it on a night away to coincide with different cycling races he wants to take part in as a bit of a treat the night before or night of to put his feet up and have a proper relax.

Advice for potential volunteers

Ged really feels that volunteering is something that anyone can take on – you don’t need a specific skill set or experience of working in any areas. If you’re interested in giving something back and trying something new, he says just to try it out and see what you’re interested in doing. He also advises that “you should not come in with any specific expectations but just be prepared to get involved. Similarly, for staff looking after or working with volunteers, they need to be open, like the staff here letting volunteers initiate ideas; volunteers may want to use the skills they have used in their working life, but they may have a wider skillset than their previous job description”. 

Ged came into the position thinking that he wouldn’t want to use his skills as a teacher and to try out different areas for development, like doing more activities outside. However, the more he began to work with the young parents and support them with developing their independent living skills, he realised how valuable his background was in helping to work through complex information and make it accessible for young people of all backgrounds.

“Having that extra dimension of working with young parents, although some of the activities are educational, it is in a very different environment from a school situation and that makes it so different.”

Ged’s selflessness to support young parents can be seen in everything he does – even down to his attitude towards volunteering. For him, it’s not about what he is able to get out of what he does but the impact for the young parents that is the most important part of what he does.

“I always remember a phrase that one of the heads at the school I worked at used to say in his assembly which was ‘a smile begets a smile’. And it’s like when you do something positive you get to see the enjoyment. What you put in bounces back.”

We are so delighted that Ged is such a dedicated volunteer for Centrepoint and hope that he continues to support the young parents for a long time to come!