One Tuesday evening a few weeks ago, I was making origami cranes with a group of young women, and then the following Thursday I was singing and doing chair exercises with a group of people with dementia… both of these took place through an internet screen yet it is the most sense of community I’ve felt in a long time!
Lockdown is isolating. Even when we frequently call our loved ones, it can still feel like something is missing, and, in my opinion, that very thing is playfulness. For me play isn’t necessarily just the act of participating in a game (although of course that counts too) but is anything that involves actually doing something: moving, laughing, being creative.
Volunteering in a group setting can be an amazing opportunity to embrace playfulness and feel part of a community!
I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to volunteer with Age UK and SoundUp Arts for some of their online workshops for people with dementia. I was so excited to be part of this because really interested in how the arts can be used to create community. It was so much fun! We all had a good laugh together, sang, and danced together. This was all very much to the confusion of my boyfriend as from his perspective all he could just see me sat down dancing with earphones on singing with no music playing! It was such a warm environment and I’m very excited for my next session with the group.
At the start of this year I began volunteering with Rangers which is a section of Girl guiding for 14-18 year olds. I decided to volunteer because I missed the fun, the arts and crafts, and the sense of community I got from being a part of Girlguding when I was a teenager.
I currently attend weekly online sessions with a local unit and have began my leadership qualification, which will qualify me to run my own unit! There are lodes of training opportunities through being a volunteer, for example I’ve started my First Aid training. The other week I lead my first independent activity, I led a guided mediation exploring the girls favourite places through their senses. This was one of the first times I’ve done this kind of thing so I was a bit nervous but it was really rewarding, especially when the girls told me about their special places.
However, you definitely don’t have to train to be a leader in order to volunteer with Girlguiding, you can simply help out at the meetings (currently in online video chat form) and enjoy yourself!
I’m really excited to work with my unit to do the things that the girls want to do in future; this of course isn’t always playful as we also create a space for the girls to discuss and take action on serious issues that they care about. Last week for example, the girls were tasked with deciding what three things they would change about the world if they were world leaders; this ended up being a really interesting and hopeful conversation that provided some joy among the all the negativity in the world at the moment. I believe that it is the sense community created by play in the first place that helps the girls and volunteers to feel comfortable in the guiding space (be it a literal space or, for the time being, a virtual one).
I understand that lockdown doesn’t necessary mean that everyone has a lot of time on their hands. But if you do have a few hours spare a week, this could be the perfect opportunity to volunteer and have some fun. I can’t begin to tell you how relaxing it is to make origami cranes nor how fun it is to do chair dances, nor how doing playful activities like these in a group make them so much more rewarding, I think instead you should go volunteer and tell me for yourself.
Girlguiding are currently looking for volunteers, to find out more visit: https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-volunteer/ and if you have any questions about my personal experience with volunteering please comment bellow or send me an email via the Contact Me page of this blog.
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