Mid Ulster Volunteer Centre
  • About Us
  • Want to Volunteer
    • Volunteer Registration Form
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Summer Volunteering
    • Millennium Volunteer
    • Employer Supported Volunteering >
      • Lidl
  • Need Volunteers
    • Organisation Registration Form
    • Volunteer Opportunity Form
  • Carefully Yours Project
    • Health and Wellbeing Fair 2016
  • The Base
  • AccessNI
  • News
    • Volunteer Recruitment Fair >
      • Volunteer Recruitment Fair 2017
      • Volunteer Recruitment Fair 2016
      • Volunteer Recruitment Fair 2015
      • Volunteer Recruitment Fair 2013 & 2014
    • Volunteer Focus (e-news)
    • Volunteer Recognition Awards 2014
    • Student Volunteering Week
    • Volunteers' Week
    • International Volunteer Day
    • Celebrating 10 years
    • Mental Health Conference
  • Blog
  • Useful Links
  • Contact Us
  • Members' Area

My Experience as an In touch Volunteer

3/6/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
I started volunteering for Action on Hearing Loss in summer 2010, with the help of Mariette Mulvenna, Outreach Volunteer Team Leader. I had recently returned to the family home in rural Northern Ireland, after living among England's thriving Deaf communities. Now I hoped to make new friends among local Deaf people. Mariette suggested I take part in the charity's In Touch service, where volunteers befriend deaf and hard-of-hearing clients through regular meetings. 

 So I started to visit a Deafblind client in a local town, and a new friendship with this sociable and outgoing man has rewarded both of us. He tactfully showed me how to communicate clearly with Deafblind people, both one-to-one and in groups, and how to guide them effectively in public places. I'm  familiar with British Sign Language, so he helped expand my understanding of Northern Irish Sign Language's differences. 

I greatly enjoy our weekly chats at his home, and make new friends through our shared Deaf social circles. Escorting him outdoors motivates me to get out more often and explore our local communities, and also makes me see them afresh as his guide.

My client benefited whenever I solved his occasional computer problems and  helped him navigate internet services too difficult to see. I could also assist with small household tasks and making arrangements for friends' visits. He  discovered more about nearby towns, shops, and tourist sites such as riverside walks and beaches, with me to guide him and describe our surroundings in sign language. 

For instance, on a rare sunny summer's day, I drove us to Portrush East Strand: we staggered safely over the soft sands, paddled in the invigorating seawater, and I described the beach's rock formations, surfers, bathers, distant boats and Dunluce castle. My client became blind later in life, and hadn't visited this beach for some years, so he appreciated rediscovering it.

Action on Hearing Loss staff do invaluable community work, but a volunteer can also offer a less formal, more intimate service, as we often share and empathise with the experiences of the Deaf people we meet.

James Kearney

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Barbara Kennedy

    Recruitment and Placement Officer with Mid Ulster Volunteer Centre

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    December 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    June 2015
    June 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Categories

    All
    Befriending Scheme
    Student Volunteering
    Team Cmvc
    Volunteer Experience
    Volunteering Experience
    Volunteers
    Volunteers' Week 2013
    Volunteers' Week 2014

    RSS Feed

Linking those who need help in the community with those who want to help.
© Mid Ulster Volunteer Centre 2020.

Last Updated

03 Dec 2020 

Terms and Conditions