Courtney’s Time at Fair Shares

Courtney, pictured above, hosting a fundraising variety show at her school.

Courtney, a young participant, is a regular visitor when not busy with her A-levels. She originally found us via one of her friends.

During her time here she’s routinely taken part in our woodworking group and honed her skills. One example of this is a plaque she made to commemerate the first anniversary of her Nan’s passing. Also, as pictured above, she helped organise a fund-raising event at her school, co-compered it, and even played her own composition on the piano as part of the evening.

Courtney jumped at the opportunity to work over the summer for the Gloucestershire Gateway Trust. As part of her role she had to travel around the county chatting to people. Her goal was to find out what they considered important in their community. The overall purpose of this was a report that could be used as a baseline to track how communities change and benefit over the years to come.

She recently wrote a little piece on how being with Fair Shares has influenced her, which we’ll transcribe below.

Volunteering at Fair Shares has helped me develop new skills that I didn’t know I could possess. I’ve developed better confidence and people skills because Fair Shares has allowed me to try new and exciting things which I have to say is one of my favourite things about volunteering. Another one of my favourite things about Fair Shares is that you make new and amazing friends who become like family that I will never forget.
 
Volunteering has helped me have a better understanding of a work place which allowed me to get a job because I’ve managed to do amazing things for my community and understand that working a job can be difficult at times but the end result is beautiful to see the smiles of peoples face. Fair Shares gave me a chance to become a better person for myself and for the people around me.