National Inclusion Week is a week dedicated to celebrating inclusion and taking action to create inclusive workplaces. Our staff and volunteers experience a wide range of individual needs and we recognise that everybody has something to offer, which is why we aim to go the extra mile to to our best to accommodate everyone.
We met with Charley who is one of our volunteer bereavement counsellors. As a full time wheelchair user, Charley has experienced many challenges in securing local volunteering and placement opportunities, but we were only happy to support her, so that she could support us. Please read Charley’s story below.
“My name’s Charley and I’m a volunteer at the Hospice, but also on placement here as a trainee counsellor.
“I’ve been training to do my counselling for a few years and, because I’m a full-time wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, I’ve had to navigate a lot of obstacles to get my qualification and my placement. The biggest being a lack of suitable venues with wheelchair access – St Michael’s Hospice was the only place in the local area that was able to accommodate me.
“I landed on my feet (no pun intended!) at the Hospice and it’s been brilliant since day one. I’ve needed simple things like a table, space to greet my clients and someone to bring the clients to me because I can’t go out to greet them myself unassisted. It was no trouble for the Hospice, and they just can’t do enough to accommodate me.
“Before I started, I had preconceived ideas like it was going to be tough or depressing at a hospice, but it’s given me so much light on a heavy subject.
“On my first day, I arrived early to make sure the room was ready and accessible. I was nervous because it was my first client, but it went by in the blink of an eye. I remember the Hospice staff checking in on me and ensuring everything was going well. If it wasn’t, there was no issue in rectifying it. That stood out to me because that’s not my norm, it’s not what I normally encounter. The Hospice has been really accommodating and supportive.
“My advice to anyone with a disability that might wish to volunteer is that it can be scary, time consuming and off-putting to think of all the obstacles that you might have to get over just to do what you want to do. But just having simple conversations with people can put a lot of things at ease quickly.
“Just do it because it could work out to be a really great thing.”
Find out more about our employment and volunteering opportunities here.
