Grace has returned to Playcentre with her second child, and last year took a big step out of her comfort zone to fill the vountary role of President.
How does volunteering benefit your Playcentre?
It is everything – it runs Playcentre! We all just get stuck in together. Children are the ultimate motivation, aren’t they?!
How has volunteering benefited you?
Volunteering has been massive for me as a person, in terms of personal growth. I feel like the Playcentre education has been like professional development for me as a parent, and as a human as well!
I’ve got so much personal growth out of volunteering here. Playcentre is a safe place for us to try things that we didn’t know we could do, and fail! It’s the most supportive environment I’ve ever been in in terms of learning. It has really expanded my idea of what I am as a person. In a good way.
What would you say to anyone unsure about what volunteering involves at a Playcentre?
You can shift your mindset around it, rather than ‘it’s jobs that need doing’ to ‘it’s an opportunity’ to learn and grow in areas that you want to. You can shape how you volunteer, there’s so much that you can do, and you really have quite a lot of control over that.