Client Stories

Hannah

Hannah, 25, moved to Sheffield after completing her history degree. After
applying for a number of positions in the arts, she realized that her CV was a little short of relevant experience, and so decided to do some voluntary
work. She approached the SOVA Sheffield Millennium Volunteers Project.

Hannah has volunteered as a Millennium Volunteer with the project since March 2004 and has completed over 300 hours of volunteering with a number of organisations. She regularly volunteers four hours per week and combines this with being a freelance community artist and working full time at ‘Inspiral’, an organisation which supports businesses in the creative industries.

Hannah volunteered with The Garden Rooms (a Sheffield artists’ co-operative) for over 15 months and helped at a weekly community based pottery workshop for local people. She also volunteered on the
Create Kids and the Kids Out Clubs, encouraging and supporting children with a wide range of abilities to participate in art and creativity activities. Hannah’s volunteering has led to her becoming an active member of The Garden Room’s management committee.

She also volunteered to design, organise and deliver weekly arts workshops for female asylum seekers and refugees after receiving an enquiry from a local charity, ASSIST (Asylum Seekers Support Initiative Short Term). This art group proved so successful and so popular that Hannah was also able to develop her own youth-led initiative called the Creative Activity Group to provide arts and craft-based activities to socially excluded women living in the Burngreave area of Sheffield.

In March 2006, Hannah’s volunteer efforts were recognized when she was voted the regional winner under the Arts category at the Regional Millennium Volunteer of the Year event held in Leeds, and the overall winner of the Millennium Volunteer of the Year title for the Yorkshire & Humber region. Hannah was presented with her trophy by local acting star Jack Shepherd (who plays David Platt in Coronation Street).

All of Hannah’s volunteering has focused on expanding her own and others’ knowledge and enjoyment through art and craft activities. She has targeted her efforts as a volunteer at groups who would not normally participate in arts-based activities.

Hannah has always volunteered and recommends the experience for everyone. She says, “You meet the most amazing people, and with them, achieve the most amazing things, and along the way, maybe you achieve something for yourself too”.

Millennium Volunteers is a Department for Education and Skills (DfES) initiative. Millennium Volunteers are young people (aged 16 to 24) who give up their free time to help their local communities. After 100 hours of volunteering, MVs are presented with an award signed by the Minister for Skills and Vocational Education. After 200 hours MVs receive an Award of Excellence signed by the
Secretary of State. The SOVA MV Project in Sheffield began in November 1999 and since then 1,057 young people have taken part, 672 of those completing 100 hours, and 457 completing 200. During the year under review, the project was supporting 688 young people.

The project achieved the Matrix Standard, the quality standard for information, advice and guidance services, and was highly commended for the quality of the services it provides. The future is a little less certain and will depend on the project’s ability to deliver against the recommendations of the Russell Commission, which may mean some refocusing of the project’s work.