Here at Maggs, we offer a wide variety of services to help the homeless and vulnerable. We want to showcase what we get up to by putting together a day in the life of each of our departments and how your donations help offer unique, tailored support.
The third installment in our ‘Day in the Life’ series is from our Volunteer Coordinator who regularly completes Friday shifts at our Clothing Project.
Volunteers are a vital part of the Maggs family. They provide two really important services for those we work with. They provide breakfasts, hot drinks and a chat at our day centres and they sort and organise all our wonderful donations at the Clothing Project which offers clothes, household items and everything our rough sleepers need to survive on the streets.
8:00am:
I arrived at clothing for my regular Friday morning shift to find our donation bin full and that we had had a “visitor” in our storage shed.
This meant that the car park and surrounding area needed a bit of a tidy up. When I opened the door I was a little overwhelmed but very excited by the sheer volume of donations which had arrived since we were last open on Wednesday. The generosity of the Worcestershire people is astonishing and never ceases to amaze me. I began to sort some of the bags and add the clothes to our shop where we have a really simple sorting rule: If we would wear it or we would have it in our house, it can go in the shop for those we work with.
8:45am:
I welcomed our volunteer team of three volunteers who always come with a smile and a determination to make the hours they give to Maggs really count. We aim to have three volunteers on every shift at our Worcester Day Centre and the Clothing Project to meet the increasing need, we have two volunteers on the rota for our Malvern Day Centre which is not quite as busy.
We agree a plan of action for the morning, and I open the shop.
9:10am:
Initially, we take referrals from a range of agencies in Worcestershire so I first look at any referrals which have come in via email and make sure the forms are ready should any of these people arrive. I like to familiarise myself with their name so that I can welcome them when they arrive. I never forget what a daunting experience it might be for anyone to access our services.
We have our regulars which I have had the privilege to get to know over the year I have been working at Maggs.
Rough sleepers are able to access the Clothing Project once a week, more if they need dry sleeping bags etc. Those who are in accommodation can come along once a month. We regularly put social media posts out for what we specifically need in Clothing and at the moment that includes sun caps, sun screen, large rucksacks and water containers. Two of the volunteers have done some fundraising and have donated lots of things from our current shopping list together with some instant noodles in a which can be made up and eaten in the bag rather than the usual plastic pot, this will take up much less room in a rucksack – genius, who knew such a thing existed, I didn’t.
A regular doner comes with some bags of clothes for us and she has never seen the shop, one of the volunteers shows her around and she is astonished at the size of the shop and the professional layout and presentation of the goods.
10:00am:
A number of regulars have been in to see us and chosen the clothes and items they need. It can be very empowering to be able to select and make choices about what they like on our shelves, in a life where there may be very little choice, it is always lovely to see someone select items that they really like or that remind them of happier times. One person selected a throw for her bed because it reminded her of times with her grandmother when she was little. Two men arrive who need to speak with their support worker who is out and about on her outreach rounds. I called her and they stay with us until she gets back. There is always lots of banter and chatter in Clothing and I know it is something our customers really appreciate.
A rough sleeper arrives with no shoes as they have been stolen, along with his rucksack. We get him everything he needs and off he goes, sadly we don’t have any large rucksacks which would have been much better than the hold-all bag we found him to keep his worldly goods together.
11:00am:
We are busy this morning and the volunteers are assisting our customers to find what they need. One customer is moving into his own place and so volunteers are helping him to think of all the things he might need and helping him to select what he likes from towels and duvet sets to spoons and saucepans and everything in between.
A donation arrives from a company we work with which almost fills a long wheelbase transit van. It is all hands-on deck to unload and find places to store the donations.
We lack space but don’t ever want to turn away a donation so we move shelves around to create a storage space until we can sort the entire donation – this will take weeks!
11:45am:
We look at what we have done during the shift and what needs to be picked up by the Monday team. Everything is left as tidy as it can be so as not to overwhelm the Monday crew.
At 12:00pm, we close our doors and the wonderful volunteers go home. We will all start again on Monday, ready to welcome donors and customers alike and sort through the amazing amount of donations we receive over the weekend.
