Gwenda Thomas AM Column for Neath Guardian January 08


On Thursday, 11th of December, I was privileged the witness the ‘Investors in Volunteers’ awards being given to Neath Port Talbot Council for Voluntary Services for their Social Services Volunteering Schemes. I heard many marvellous stories of how volunteering can benefit everybody. There are over 900 voluntary organisations with an interest in health and social care in Neath Port Talbot and approximately five thousand people volunteer. These people are the lifeblood of our communities, over fifty percent of adults volunteer in what is known as formal and informal volunteering and they are involved in delivering all sorts of services without which our life would be unbearable .Volunteers help the most vulnerable in society, delivering home care, hospital discharge schemes, information, helping those in distress or despair, running community transport or most importantly just being a friend. Without volunteers the world would be a very cold and uncaring place, a caring society just could not exist without volunteers.

Why do people volunteer? Perhaps by wanting to help, to make friends, to gain skills and experience for future employment , to help improve physical and mental health problems, or just wanting to make the world a better place by giving service. The Labour led Welsh Assembly Government is committed to supporting the voluntary sector and has recently produced Designed to Add Value - a third dimension to provide direction for the voluntary sector in health and social care, it recognises that volunteers bring considerable value to the every day lives of people and that they enhance and support health and social care services in many ways for little or no cost but bring significant gains.
Encouraging younger people to volunteer is a challenge, volunteering must be made popular and fun, and it is important to establish a pattern of lifelong engagement which is to the benefit of the individual and the local community. When I was picking the Snow Prince and Princess in the Friends of the Cabin’s party in Cwmgwrach I was proud to see all the young volunteers working there. The people of Neath and the surrounding areas will benefit as more young people are given the opportunity to express themselves as active citizens and make an invaluable contribution to society following the example of the young people of Cwmgwrach, it is important to provide adequate support and recognition for those young people already working hard to make our communities better places to live as was so vividly demonstrated to me in the Awards Ceremony in Neath.
I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Gwenda Thomas is Deputy Minister for Social Services.