Simon Says Volunteer!
Last week, NewVoiceMedia's sales development team donated 25 valuable volunteer support hours for Hampshire-based child bereavement service, Simon Says.
Simon Says was established when Simon Stanley, a 37 year-old teacher from Southampton, died from cancer. His wife Sally found there was no bereavement support locally for their two small children.
Simon Says offers information and advice to young people in Hampshire who have lost or are losing a significant person in their lives.
This year, Simon Says celebrates 15 years of making a positive difference to the lives of vulnerable young people in Hampshire. In honour of this milestone, eight volunteers from NewVoiceMedia pledged their support to raise awareness and promote the services of Simon Says in our local community.
Our team of volunteers used NewVoiceMedia's ContactWorld solution to share Simon Says' story with schools, GPs and service providers in the local area. In total, 270 calls were made to make new organisations aware of Simon Says and the service it offers, with more than 20 GP surgeries consequently now holding Simon Says' educational material in their practices.
Our team also contacted local businesses to gather donations and items which will be used for raffle prizes at Simon Says fundraising events over the next few months. The team managed to bag some fun prizes including a paint-balling session, personal makeover, studio photography experience and health and fitness club vouchers.
Simon Says Fundraising Administrator Jane Burton commented: “We were delighted to have the support of NewVoiceMedia to help us raise awareness of Simon Says in the Basingstoke area and get some fantastic raffle prizes. Our mission is to make sure that every child in Hampshire who has been bereaved is made aware of Simon Says and the support we offer. Every call that NewVoiceMedia made means that our charity is now known by more organisations who may know of someone needing our support. As a small charity we value the time that people volunteer to help us. Thank you to all those involved”.
This is another great example of skills-based volunteering where the sales team was able to use its everyday skills to communicate the messages of a great cause. Using our Contactworld technology, successful conversations were recorded and used to train the Simon Says team to carry out future fundraising.
John Richardson, a sales development manager at NewVoiceMedia who led the project, told me, "It was an excellent project to be involved in, for an incredible charity supporting children in such a vital stage of their development who are going through the hardest experiences of their lives. It was a truly moving experience. Using our technology and the skills and talents of my team to raise awareness of Simon Says and the wonderful work they do has been great!"
