Woodside Volunteers Assist St John of God Horizon House
To support their important cause, St John of God Horizon House (SJOGHH) engaged with Volunteering WA to arrange for a skilled volunteer to coordinate a series of activities to enhance their services and the lives of their clients.
This monster of a project involved roughly 45 Woodside volunteers across three teams, totalling approximately 400 hours of volunteering effort, coordinated by one very hardworking, dedicated volunteer from Woodside’s Finance department. The project included two skills-based teams and one team day. During the team day, around 20 Woodside volunteers worked in and around one of the Horizon House locations, providing assistance in gardening, maintenance of equipment, painting, etc. They cleaned up the yard to make way for a youthful chill space and created a physical activity space for young people, complete with the build and set-up of gym equipment. They also helped create a 5th bedroom for another young person to enter the Horizon House program.
SJOGHH was extremely satisfied with the outcome of the team day, valuing the benefits received in the thousands!
“ The event was so successful and supporting of the program.”
In addition to the direct, tangible benefits received from the day, SJOG saw an added benefit in the message it conveyed to their clients.
“ It is wonderful to show the young people the positive side of giving back to the community and them being able to see people care.”
The larger part of the project was contributing to SJOGHH’s Independent Living Skills Program, a life skills program to help SJOGHH clients learn to cook, clean and budget so they can live independently. The Woodside volunteers conducted workshops with SJOGHH’s staff and clients to offer individual expertise and contribute to the design of an effective skills-development program. The volunteers also developed a handbook focused around personal finance and employment skills, which SJOGHH Caregivers can utilise in the future.
The collaboration between the Woodside volunteers, NFP staff, and NFP clients working together really gave the volunteers a deep understanding of the amazing services the St John of God Horizon House provides.
“ The enthusiasm and passion shown by the house staff and the young people was infectious and that spending the days together was a very enjoyable experience.”
Whilst a project of this magnitude was by no means a walk in the park, the Woodside volunteers found a lot of value in taking part, both professionally and personally. In addition to building on his own skills in leadership and coordination, the Woodside Volunteer Coordinator felt the project proved to be the perfect platform to bring Woodside teams together, providing an “opportunity to get to know each other outside of a normal work context, and this effective team building is now reflected in visibly stronger networks within the operating unit.” Furthermore, he explained the inspiration and sense of fulfilment he and his colleagues felt taking part in this project:
“ I believe everybody involved in the project was inspired seeing the great work the Horizon House organisation are doing, and enjoyed being a small part of that work.”
As for volunteering again in the future? He stated he would definitely take it up again, providing these parting words:
“ As far as involvement in skills based volunteering, I feel it is much more gratifying to see your skills are being effectively utilised to make as much of an impact as possible to an organisation. The long term impact of providing insight, upskilling staff, or providing a new tool or method can be very significant – i.e. the concept of ‘giving a man a fish vs. teaching a man to fish.”
The team of volunteers from Woodside really did an amazing job on this project, in particular the Coordinator of this massive project, who was committed and determined throughout, reflective in the excellent outcomes achieved. Great work all!