Spotlight on: Volunteer Ambassadors

What comes to mind when you think of an ambassador? Red carpets? Pomp and ceremony? Perhaps even dinner parties and chocolate. The reality can be somewhat different.

It could be being asked how you eat, or being grilled about your hygiene! However, it very definitely is a chance to build bridges, inspire and make new connections that just might make a big difference to someone’s life.

These features look at the various aspects of volunteering with FVSC and while things like driving or helping with groups and events are perhaps more obvious, but all charities need a good reputation. They need to make people aware of their work (like you reading this article), what’s on offer to support people and very importantly, be transparent about funding.

We employ lots of ways to do that, traditional press, social media of course and our ambassadors. This is a group of Centre Users who actively go out and speak to different groups about their experiences of living with sensory conditions.

Providing this ‘lived experience’ is vital for helping the wider community understand the challenges that living with sight or hearing impairments brings on a daily basis, and just how the Centre can help.

This is true at board level, online and supporting wider initiatives on education and diversity.

Our ambassadors have spoken to school groups at primary and High School level, Youth Philanthropy Initiative students, older people’s groups, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts, Rotary and Women’s Institute to name just a few.

Each person has their own approach and have also had some very interesting questions! Christine Moroney, one of our blind ambassadors was asked by one inquisitive pupil at a primary school how she knew her husband was good looking. Quick as anything Christine replied “well he told me he was so I had to believe him!”

John Ormsby is a regular at the Centre and in meeting groups. Both sight and hearing impaired, John does tours for student nurses from Stirling University, helping them understand how to support older people but also very much enjoys meeting school groups.

John says “I find young children are the best audience, they are like blotting paper, soaking up information and they always have lots of questions.” One of John’s particular tricks is to place different fruit in a cardboard box and ask children to identify different things. It can be easy when asked to identify a pear or an orange as children realise they can feel the shape or the skin.

However, asking people to pull out a red or green apple poses questions and it is this sort of engaging, problem solving talk that really gets children to understand what sight, or hearing loss can mean to a person.

Laura Cluxton, another of our blind Centre Users, often takes her Guide Dog along to talks and the most common question is how the dog knows where to go. Laura carefully explains the dog is not a sat nav and you can’t ask it to take you to Spain! Just one of the many myths these talks help dispel.

Laura is also Vice Chair of our board, which always includes a wide selection of Centre Users to make sure that our charity operates in the interest of the people it supports. Clare Boland is another of our ambassadors and represents the deaf community at various events. Clare is a big advocate of improving communication. She says “lots of things are done in a hearing way, it can have a big impact, for example most fire alarms are audible only, that’s a big issue.” Clare ensures that deaf culture, concerns and the community are looked after both at the Centre and when speaking to other organisations.

Sally Work is a deaf mum who has also helped us highlight what growing up as a deaf person can be like. She took part in the People’s Story Project a few years ago to tell the story of what it is like being deaf. You can see the video here: https://vimeo.com/340201741 Sally is also a good link to Windsor Park School, where she takes part in parents’ groups, deaf football and much more!

Two more Deaf Centre Users, “in with the bricks” are Ian and Cathy Carmichael. Both in their 80’s neither shows signs of slowing down and they are amongst the most active members of our community and volunteers. Ian and Cathy recently spent time telling a group of Denny High school students about school as a deaf child over 70 years ago when BSL was banned and deaf people were forced to be as oral as possible to help them fit into society. It wasn’t until age 10 Cathy first saw someone speaking in BSL and quickly learned the language. She and Ian have now been together for almost 60 years too!

But it is the benefits the Centre provides as a result of all this work we need people to know about. Laura is very active on social media. As a keen cyclist who has competed in the Commonwealth Games, Laura has a good social media following and uses this to promote disabled rights, news, information and events at the Centre. She always aims to be positive in her outlook, feeling you can get more support by being nice than combative! Give her a follow @pixielaurac

Friend Lawson Eades, another of our blind ambassadors who has been called an ‘inspiration’ on more than one occasion following her talks, is another social media advocate and says that the Centre changed her life, something, she always speaks to external groups about. Lawson demonstrates gadgets and talks about the skills she has learned in our groups and classes.

This idea of the Centre being a life changer is echoed by Ian and Cathy who say they don’t know what they would do without the Centre. How would they meet other deaf people?

The bigger question is, what would we do without our volunteers? Without people like Clare, Cathy, Christine, Ian, John, Laura, Lawson and Sally we could not do what we do.

They are part of a self-fulfilling prophecy. We consult Centre Users, we raise funds, we put on activities, our ambassadors tell people about our work, this allows us to bring in more people, raise more money and the cycle, as simple as it has been made to sound, continues. So, volunteering isn’t just about helping at events or working for free. Many of our Centre Users are also volunteers and their skills, stories and experiences are critical, not only to securing support for our work but also to making sure that we are doing the best we can to help people with sensory conditions live confident, independent lives. After all, that’s why we are here in the first place!

Watch both our ambassador interviews below. The first features Christine while the second is a group conversation and lasts just over half an hour.