Sarah Taylor volunteers at Beacon and is passionate about her role. She shares with Beacon why she feels volunteering is an important aspect of National Eye Health Week.
She helps in the Health and Wellbeing Department and mainly supports service users in the crafts room. Sarah lives in Walsall and has been homeschooled her whole life and now attends Bible College which she believes has helped shape her moral obligations.
She explains: “Everything I do is centred around my faith of Christianity, so volunteering was a natural thing for me to do. From a young age my parents have taught me through my faith and a big part of this is giving back.”
For the young volunteer, integrating with others from all walks of life was important to her which is why she came to Beacon.
“At Beacon you meet so many people with amazing stories and knowing that my support is helping them with their confidence and independence is satisfying. Volunteering is a great way to build experience but also a way of giving back. I felt I have grown more in confidence since coming to Beacon and become more sociable”.
We believe volunteers play a vital part at Beacon; their generous donation of time helps our service users in many ways. It’s a great way of building experience and a productive way to spend your free time. For many of our service users, coming to Beacon is all about socialising with others and building confidence through a range of activities and events – all of which could not be possible without the support of volunteers.
“The work we do as volunteers is vital to the sightloss community and it helps those individuals realise their full potential. Since volunteering in the crafts room, I feel I have developed as a more creative individual but more importantly helped service users find their own creativity.
I would encourage anyone looking to gain valuable experience or use their spare time to think about what they can give back and how they can help make a difference to visually impaired people across the Black Country and Staffordshire.”
To find out more about volunteering, contact us at enquiries@beaconvision.org