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Leathersellers’ Review 2024–2025
Creating positive experiences “There are only two and a half paid staff at The Mazi Project,” says volunteer Rachel Ayres. “Then there’s this army of devoted volunteers. The charity is very good at nurturing us, by making us feel welcome when we arrive and by keeping in touch. They communicate regularly. For example, there’s a WhatsApp group with lots of positive feedback.” Importantly, Rachel says, volunteering is fun. “They make it an enjoyable experience for us. It’s very task-focused, but there’s nice music playing and there’s always hot drinks available. You feel like you’re going to a special event. It’s absolutely lovely,” says Rachel. “When I stopped work, I thought, ‘Am I going to continue to be useful?’ As a volunteer, I feel useful and valued. That’s so important. I think that The Mazi Project is a great place to put my time into, because it’s helping so many people, and the focus is so much on the input of volunteers.” Building supportive relationships At The Mill, volunteering is not something that is seen as a detached ‘thing to do’, but rather a part of the day or week in that person’s life that is met with compassion and support to enable them to give their time and skills. This partly explains why they manage to retain a relatively large number of volunteers. One of the benefits of having such a big team of volunteers is that The Mill has people from lots of different backgrounds involved in what they do. “They bring a diversity of ideas, their own personalities and strengths,” says Kim Dexter, The Mill’s Community Organiser. “They can be empathetic and relate to different people.” In a complementary approach, alongside The Mazi Project’s regular volunteers the charity teams up with local companies that send staff to help out through corporate social responsibility or employee volunteering schemes. “I could be packing with somebody who’s an aeronautical engineer one week or a PR person the next,” says Rachel. “Volunteering is exposing me to all kinds of interesting people that I wouldn’t otherwise have contact with. I absolutely love going into that environment, which is always very buzzy.”
Above and opposite: Food portioned out and ready to be packed by volunteers at The Mazi Project
“I have realised that when I am not cooking, my day can be bad. I think a lot and get depressed. I cook a lot at home and my dream is to open an Afghan/English restaurant where we can share food from our cultures.”
“There is always a friendly and welcoming atmosphere at The Mill. We are fortunate to have this community centre, which is very well-run.”
The Mill’s Chair, Sharon, has a similar experience to Rachel – she feels like she is making a difference, while gaining purpose, support and friendship. Sharon retired from a career in social work to look after her husband when he was ill. Sadly, he died shortly afterwards. “Having had a really full working life and family life, I was suddenly on my own with all this time,”
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