The RSPB in Wales is passionate about volunteering, so much so that it has led to some of our volunteers joining the volunteer department as staff members to help us continue our volunteer work across the country. Stacey Baldwin shares how she became involved.
Stacey Baldwin - Community Volunteer Officer, Giving Nature a Home in Cardiff
I started volunteering with RSPB Cymru after I had graduated from university and was looking for my next step. I’d never worked in an office before so the comings and goings of all the different staff members, the background hum of computers and the clink-clink of tea and coffee spoons were all a lot to take in at first and I felt quite overwhelmed.
But my line manager welcomed me in and not only explained to me what was expected of my role, but also took lunch breaks with me and helped me understand the nuances of office life which were completely alien to me. My ‘volunteering Tuesdays’ soon became the most satisfying day as I could go home each day knowing that I had been useful and made a difference to my line manager’s workload.
Although I graduated with an Ecology degree and always love being outside, volunteering with a conservation charity made me realise that I much prefer working with people to working with survey sheets and chainsaws – a quick redirection of my career path took place in my head and I started to look forward to jobs where I could enable others to do the work they wanted to do for nature.
I now work for RSPB Cymru full time as a Community Volunteer Officer and I know that my volunteering experience helped me to be where I am now. Not just because my role gave me the confidence to apply for my first full time job, but because I know what it’s like to be a volunteer and be able to make a difference to the RSPB’s work. Hopefully the volunteers I now work with on a day to day basis would say the same!
Seeing how myself and others around me have gained so much from volunteering led to me wanting to work within volunteering at the RSPB to develop the program to help others have a great experience like I have with the RSPB.
We have a wealth of volunteering opportunities across Wales, which can be found at; http://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/community-and-advice/volunteer/