Amazing people across Leeds have been volunteering in response to COVID-19 and have made supporting vulnerable people within the city possible.

Meet Faheem (15) and Zain (17), two teenage students that are no strangers to the CATCH charity in Harehills. CATCH acts as a Community Hub, which is part of the Community Care Volunteering programme, established by Voluntary Action Leeds and Leeds City Council to ensure those in need can access voluntary support.

 

Both Faheem and Zain live locally. They volunteer at CATCH’s youth sessions and have been doing so during the pandemic. COVID-19 has impacted young people’s lives in many ways. We speak to Faheem and Zain to find out how they have been coping recently and what role volunteering has played in their lives.

NB This interview took place before schools reopened on 8 March 2021.

 

How has your daily life changed during COVID–19?

Faheem: “I don’t get to go out much. I don’t get to come here [CATCH] as much. I don’t get to go out with my friends, go to school, so now it’s kind of boring and I have nothing to do at home.”

Zain: “So, there’s no school, so I’m mostly at home doing nothing. Then when CATCH opened, I wanted to help.”

 

Why did you decide to volunteer?

F: “I wanted to help people and I still get to meet people here – something to do with my time. My cousin told me about the food hub.”

Z:  “Because there was nothing to do at home so I’m like, I might as well come down and help in my free time”.

 

What does you volunteer role entail?

F: “Sorting food donations out in the food hub and making food parcels two days a week.”

Z: “I help out at the food hub. I normally come on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturday’s and Sunday’s to help out. I help out at the food bank and with the goats as well.

 

“The food hub is good. We’re helping a lot of people out. I don’t deliver the parcels, I just sort the parcels out…I enjoy it.”

 

How has volunteering during COVID–19 crisis made you feel?

F: “I just do it. If it will help someone then I’ll do it.

“You can feed people rather than them starving. They’re vulnerable people. They don’t need to come out, they can stay at home. They’re less likely to get infected by COVID-19.”

Z:“It’s helped many of my skills and boosted my confidence. Now I can talk to many people at the same time. When I first came to CATCH I was shy. Now I’ve got to know everyone and I’m more loud.”

 

Have you volunteered before?

F: “I volunteer at CATCH helping out at the youth sessions. My Mum got me into cadets and here [CATCH] to improve my confidence. Before coming to CATCH, I wouldn’t have been able to talk to anyone. I wouldn’t have been able to talk to you, but now I can talk confidently.”

Z: “Apart from at CATCH, I have volunteered for a youth sports club at the mosque. I run the sessions, play cricket and football. I’ll do this again when this [COVID-19] is over.”

 

Do you have a message to anyone thinking about volunteering?

F: “Come down here for a day or two. See how it is and then you can go from there. Try it.”

Z: “It helps you out a lot. It gives you more experience. It’s work experience but better. It’s very helpful.”

 

Volunteers can offer practical support for vulnerable people (such as shopping deliveries, preparing meals, making check-in phone calls) or can sign-up as an informal volunteer to help within their own neighbourhood in more general ways. The Leeds City Council helpline is available so that people in need of support can call 0113 378 1877 to be matched with a local volunteer who can help.

The Community Care Volunteering Programme is not currently accepting applications from new volunteers but there are still lots of other volunteering opportunities available in Leeds. To find out more, please visit https://doinggoodleeds.org.uk/i-want-to-volunteer/

VAL