Young volunteer Greg shares how joining our team of retail volunteers is helping him to kick-start his career.
I've been volunteering at St Luke's for over two years now, starting during my Retail Level 2 course that I was studying at Sheffield College. I volunteered at the Hillsborough shop as part of my course and my tutor would come to assess me and see how I was getting on. After I passed my course I decided to continue volunteering here since it gets me out to do something and helps me to meet new people.
I had tried volunteering at other charity shops before, but St Luke's was the one that really helped me to get started. They were really good at helping me to settle in and the induction program showed me where everything needed to go, how to use all of the different equipment and just made me feel more comfortable.
Volunteering really helps me feel more dedicated. When I left college, I didn't feel like I had many skills. So volunteering was a great solution for me and helped me to get confident in public as well as learning practical skills such as using the till. I think it will really help me to get a job in retail in the future.
The team at Hillsborough are really fantastic people. We have great managers here and we always have a good laugh as well! But at the same time we're very dedicated as a team to work together to keep the shop running and support St Luke's.