A Volunteer’s Story – Volunteer To Shop Manager

Many of our full time staff started their journey with Women’s Aid as a volunteer.

We have over 145 volunteers working across our four charity shops and other services and their reasons for volunteering are many and varied.

Many of those who volunteer find the experience enriching and enlightening and want to make the move into full time employment with us.

That’s exactly what happened in Lorraine’s case…

Hi, my name is Lorraine and I first started to volunteer at The Women’s Aid, Hainton Charity Shop in March 2016.

I had worked in retail for 16 years after leaving school, before beginning to work in Family Hubs, supporting families but when my hours were reduced in that job, I decided to volunteer with Women’s Aid, so I could continue to support families suffering domestic abuse.

I learned how to book in deliveries and pick-ups of furniture donations and also how to sort and price clothes donations, before volunteering in the bric a brac shop one morning a week.

I decided that I wanted to work full time for Women’s Aid and when the manager’s job at The Tiverton Shop was advertised, I applied and got the job.

That was 2 1/2 years ago now and I love every minute of my job.

The most rewarding part of the job is knowing that money raised in all the shops goes towards helping to support women and children in our Refuge and the outreach support workers who support those not in refuge and all the staff are amazing.

The one piece of advice I would give to anyone thinking about volunteering with Women’s Aid NEL, is to go into the shops and speak to the managers and volunteers and spend day with them to see how it all works.

We are friendly and easy to get along with and always welcome new volunteers, plus we have tea and biscuits!

I would definitely recommend working for North East Lincs Women’s Aid to anyone.

Lorraine… Charity Shop Manager

If you would like to volunteer at Women’s Aid NEL, contact us by email fundrasing@womensaidnel.org

or drop us a message on our Facebook Page.