Motherwell College - Orbiston Neighbourhood Centre
Orbiston Neighbourhood Centre is a community-based organisation operating for the benefit of people living in the Orbiston and Bellshill area of North Lanarkshire. Its main service areas are childcare, elderly care, community café and food store, befriending and volunteering.
Two students - Robyn Fleming and Holly-Anne Smith - from Motherwell College took part in volunteering at the Centre in both day-care for elderly people and after-school care for young people. “We feel that by doing this volunteer work we have grown greatly as people, before this we both would have been hesitant about talking to and/or meeting new people but now we are definitely more comfortable doing it. We feel more confident and have noticed that this has made college a lot easier. The skills we have developed include speaking in front of people and speaking in a more professional and formal manner. It has also shown us how to relate to lots of different people from lots of different backgrounds.”
Robyn didn’t think that volunteering could make such an impact on her life. “Since starting I have learned so much and become more aware and grateful of my life and the people in it. I couldn’t imagine my week without visiting Orbiston Neighborhood centre. During day-care the elderly community comes to relax and socialise, play games and have something to eat. We enjoy hearing their stories and have learned how to communicate better with different people from different situations. You need to apply different social skills to the children because they aren’t able to communicate as well as the elderly. We have both developed our social skills through volunteering and have gained so many new friends. Some of the volunteers are disabled or have learning difficulties. We were nervous to start with because we weren’t sure how to approach or communicate with them. However we have learned that they are no different and are very capable of talking to you and understanding what you are saying. I feel I have gained lots of confidence through volunteering and we truly love it.