I’m a new trustee for Emmaus South Manchester and my background is as a qualified accountant. I’ve been working for Stagecoach Bus for two years and prior to that I worked at the Co-op for about 12 years doing various finance roles.

I got involved in Emmaus because as part of my development at Stagecoach, we have been doing some leadership development, working with an organisation called Be A Trustee. They were really encouraging us to use our skills and broaden our horizons by getting involved with charities.

Be A Trustee link up individuals with charities, and that is when I was introduced to Emmaus South Manchester. Prior to that I hadn’t heard of Emmaus, but I had initial conversations with the Chair of Emmaus South Manchester during the first lockdown and found out more about the charity. He invited me to attend the trustee meetings and I’ve now formally become a trustee.

Being a charity trustee involves attending regular meetings and these are currently held online. We make decisions on the future and strategy for the charity. As a new start-up, things are changing constantly and being in a lockdown situation, not all plans can be fully fulfilled. However, what we are making sure of is that we’re making progress and acting in the best interests of the Emmaus South Manchester charity.

Remote volunteering during lockdown

As well as a trustee, I’ve also become a textile volunteer at Emmaus, due in part to the inspiration from the rest of the team. It has been really hard as a start-up charity to do things during lockdown, but Mark, our Local Champion, and Caroline, a fellow trustee, have been a big influence. They are both really passionate about textiles, recycling and upcycling and they came up with a project around Christmas time of upcycled wreaths and garlands.

I’m not a natural crafty textile person but I said I’d give it a go. I started and realised it was quite easy from the kits that had been prepared by fellow volunteers. I spread the word via my network of mum friends and social media and more people got involved as remote volunteers. We sent around garland kits including all the textiles and everyone kept in touch via social media, sharing updates, tips and pictures of their finished wreaths.

It was a really good project because we were all in lockdown, it was a great activity to do at home in front of the TV and you could create something that would look great inside your home for Christmas. Our next project is a teddy bear project.

Making time to volunteer

The trustee role in terms of time is usually anything between 10 and 20 hours a month. In terms of my textile volunteering and the wreath project, I’d say I did about 4 hours making my own and probably another 4 hours coordinating and getting other people’s wreaths kits to them.

Before becoming a charity trustee or volunteering you worry at first that it’s going to take up too much time. In reality though, people are flexible and there’s no pressure to deliver more than you can. I’ve got a family, a full-time job and I’m learning so sometimes my contribution can be less or more, but everyone is supportive and understanding of that.

I wish I’d done this sooner because I’m learning new skills, gaining new responsibilities and actually I’m really enjoying it. I could have been involved many years ago but wasn’t aware of the route to becoming a trustee and didn’t know other people who were trustees to be encouraged.

Volunteering with Emmaus has allowed me to meet some new people and focus on other things rather than my main day job, lockdown and family. You get to think about other people for a while and try and give something back. I find it really rewarding and my fellow trustees and volunteers are really great people who are easy to get along with. We’re like-minded people who want to push forward, make the charity successful and help the community.