Ben’s Story: Why Volunteering Matters #iwillweek

My name is Ben Robinson and I am a 17 year old  volunteer at Volunteering Matters. Before I started volunteering, I was a pupil in Abersychan Comprehensive School but I did not do very much in my spare time and I procrastinated the things that I needed to do.  I found out about Volunteering Matters through Torfaen Training, I wanted to volunteer because I wanted to help people and thought ‘if I was going to do a job, let’s help people’.

Since starting volunteering here, I’ve  matured more and have learned that if something is in your way, it doesn’t matter because you can achieve it.  I have also gained many useful skills, such as making tea, hoovering and time-keeping.  And I’ve achieved my C grade in Maths GCSE while here.

Volunteering matters to me because it means that I am able to help people and help them achieve things they did not think they would achieve.

I am now studying for my NVQ in Customer Services whilst volunteering here and volunteering has made me more motivated to do this.  I have also helped to run workshops such as the Mental Health Men’s group on Monday’s and helped at SAFE training and gone to a meeting with Mind Matters at St Joseph’s RC High School to promote the project.