Our volunteers are our front line

We were really pleased to hold a DCN Volunteers’ Day early in March. It was in-person and was a really lovely event, designed to meet, support and celebrate our volunteers. We had been running a Volunteers’ Day annually but the last one was back in 2020. For various reasons, we hadn’t been able to hold one since then, so we were very excited to be offering it again in 2025.

We provided a free creche to make sure childcare wasn’t a barrier to attending, and we covered everyone’s travel expenses to ensure they weren’t out-of-pocket. In the end nearly 30 people came and we had a really productive, fun day. We planned the time to be able to network and connect people as well as share experiences and suggestions. The lunch and tea and cake at the end provided the all-important social time and we even had some special mugs to give as a thank you gift. It led me to reflect on the importance of our volunteers in enabling us to deliver the services we offer and it also reminded me of how tough their roles can sometimes be.

Our volunteers are very much on the front line of what we do. We are incredibly lucky to have an amazing pool of members who offer their time and energy to help us support the wider membership. These volunteers do a variety of key roles and all of them are vital for our work.

One role is as part of our Welcoming Team. Our welcomers are the first port of call for new members, giving them the chance to speak to someone in a similar situation as them and share experiences and explore some of what they are feeling and why. It’s hard to overestimate the value of those conversations.

We get some very moving feedback with new members sharing that the welcoming call was the first time they’d expressed certain feelings or even the first time they’d spoken to anyone about their situation. They report how supported they felt and what a gift it was to be able to speak to someone who really understood where they were and their specific hopes and fears. Those conversations can be emotional, with our volunteers sometimes meeting people at their most vulnerable. It’s not always easy work but our volunteers also reported back how rewarding it was to know what value they bring.

We have other volunteers who facilitate our online Chats. These online groups are another really valuable opportunity for members to connect and talk about important, sometimes sensitive, topics. We make sure the groups are facilitated so that discussions happen in a well-held space. Again, we get feedback from the groups and we know how powerful they can be and that’s in part thanks to our facilitators.

We also have a small group of volunteers who help evaluate the research applications that come to us. We don’t want to simply share anything and everything that we get approached about; we want to be sure the research is both relevant and sensitively managed. We also want to be sure we aren’t wasting the researchers’ time, so we rely on our research team to help guide us on those questions.

One long-standing volunteer runs our library. The library is currently paused, sadly, but hopefully we’ll have it back in action in a few months.

Another role is organising local meetups in-person around the country. Finding people and families nearby can be a reason people join. The online space and social media options are great ways to connect, but often nothing beats a real face-to-face conversation and connection, particularly if people want to include their children. Our volunteers set up gatherings in local parks or discussions at local pubs or hold meetings in their homes. The provision isn’t equal across the country, and it changes as volunteers step down or step up. But we work hard to try to provide as many meetups as we can and are always so grateful when people offer to organise events.

As well as receiving from them, of course we also want to make sure we’re providing enough support to our volunteers. We don’t want them to burn out or feel overwhelmed, or feel like they don’t have enough of a network around them to help them do their important tasks. So, in addition to our Volunteer’s Day, we run regular trainings and online ‘Connect and Reflect’ sessions. We want to equip them in their roles and give them a foundation of training and confidence in what can sometimes be a challenging role. And, of course, we need them to know they are valued and appreciated.

Being a peer-support charity, we’ve always been reliant on volunteers and it’s very much at the heart of our ethos and structure. We’re able to punch above our weight, thanks to harnessing the power of our members to cascade so much support out to others.

Our thanks go to all our volunteers who give their time so generously and on whom we rely so heavily. Thank you!

Nina Barnsley
31st March 2025