VOLUNTEERING WITH A FRIENDLY AND PROFESSIONAL CHARITY THAT DELIVERS GENUINE BENEFIT TO OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY
VASL (Voluntary Action South Leicestershire) is a local charity that helps the lives of people in our community. It does this through involving volunteers in all its projects – Support for Carers, Transport, Community Well-being Harborough, Carers Dementia Guardians and Community Champions. All projects cover different geographical areas with most providing some services across Harborough District. Support for Carers covers the whole of Leicestershire.
One important service offered through Community Champions is called Digital Inclusion, which is about teaching older people how to master the use of mobile phones, laptops and other electronic devices. This has become increasingly important as more organisations e.g. NHS embrace digitisation of their services, partly to reduce costs, and partly to provide more customised services.
More recently, VASL Community Champions has started to work with local GP services to promote the NHS app and help older people set it up on their devices and use it. This is already proving to be very popular because one very useful feature of the app is helping people get a medical appointment. Once people become familiar with how to use the app, getting a medical appointment via the app is much easier online than having to wait for ages in a long telephone queue, listen to annoying music and wait up to an hour to talk to a human.
VASL could not function without its volunteers. They are the life blood of the organisation. I decided to help with Digital Inclusion and the NHS app because I’m pretty handy with this stuff and I wanted to give something back to the community. As with any of this type of volunteering, you can do as much or as little as you like, to fit in with your other commitments. It is great to be part of a team of Digital volunteers , who all help each other.
What is nice about VASL is that it is a charity that really does deliver benefit to people. So you can believe in it. It is both professional and friendly. You are embraced within the team from the start and get training and support for what you do.
VASL is always looking to recruit new volunteers, and not just in digital training. It currently needs more volunteer drivers and face to face befriending volunteers. There are lots of different ways you can help.
There is more information on this website about digital inclusion and about how to register for the NHS App or for local volunteering opportunities here https://vasl.org.uk/support/volunteering-with-vasl/ or call VASL on 01858 439262
Volunteering is a powerful force – it enables the volunteer to provide a meaningful service, the recipient to improve their life in a small but significant way and makes society more cohesive.
Michael Rodber
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