Volunteers change lives

Last week the UK celebrated the wonderful work of people who freely give their time to good causes with Volunteering Week 2017. It got us thinking about the efforts of our volunteers all around the country who change the lives of disabled and older people everyday.

We currently have 230 volunteers for our free home support service ITCanHelp. Some, like David Brew, have been volunteering for 20 years.

Each of them makes regular visits to people who might need help to do things like online shopping, Skyping their family or getting the most out of technology which could help them, such as speech-to-text or screenreading equipment.

AbilityNet volunteers will also help with smartphones, TVs and often go above and beyond the call of duty. One particular volunteer who stands out is Allan, who helped 80-year-old Ruth trace her long lost brother. Or Pankaj, who helped Jannette synchronise all her IT to work efficiently for her 30 years after having a stroke. It truly changed her life. 

Brian, from Lancashire recently made a home video for us about how his AbilityNet volunteer has changed his world. 

This year, to date, our volunteers have clocked up 1,500 hours of volunteering between them, the equivalent of over 200 working days, all for free.

They have scored a customer satisfaction rating of 95% and received the following comments:

“excellent service and support”
“so understanding”
“a pleasure to work with”
“very patient”
“very kind, very thoughtful, very skilled”

For some of our very vunerable clients, their computer truly is a lifeline.

To join our group of volunteers, click here. 

To get help at home from one of our AbilityNet ITCanHelp volunteers, click here.