How Can YOU Help Us / Others
There are many different ways that volunteers can help us to help people with invisible disabilities all around the UK.
At present we are concentrating on Kent as this is where the organisation is based, but we hope to eventually become a nationwide charity.
To be come a charity we need funding of £5,000. So if there are any ways that you can help us raise this money we would be very grateful. This doesn't always have to cost any money, and not too much time either. Here are some examples.
So far we have had a Ladies Pamper Evening and also a Bring and Buy Sale organised by Virtually Assisting / VA Events (www.virtuallyassisting.weebly.com). They also do admin work for us including this website.
Some of our helpers take tins into work to put onto counters, for people to put their spare change into. We have a lady who works in a fish and chip shop and another lady who works in a pub.
Some large supermarkets have a community section in their foyer/lobby and have plastic tokens which can be put into slots by customers who have shopped there. Beside these slots there are usually nomination cards which can be completed and put into a collection box. Hopefully then they will consider allowing us to receive donations that way. We are also hoping to be able to stand in the foyer on selected dates to collect money for customers and to raise awareness and we will need volunteers to join with us to chat to the customers that we can't get to.
www.mysupermarket.com is an online shopping site that allows you to shop online and choose the best store according to the value of your shopping. At present they are doing a 'cashback' offer whereby when you buy certain branded products you receive money back. This is stored for a few months then sent to your chosen Paypal account. By simply asking for this spare money to go into our Paypal account could raise our funds tremendously without you even noticing the money has gone. Our Paypal address is [email protected].
We also need volunteers who are willing to help the families or individuals directly, providing such help as assisting with household chores like shopping or housework. Some people may require help with their benefits, trips to the doctors or a hospital appointment or may just someone to talk to.
We would like to be able to offer daytrips for the children of disabled parents, or for disabled children themselves. If children are part of a family with invisible disabilities their lives can be quite limited as parents may not be able to do as much as an able-bodied parent would; all children need fun as well and this may be just supervised visits to the park.
If you feel that you are able to help in any of these ways, or any other way, then please contact us using the contact form or by e-mailing us at [email protected]. All volunteers working with others will need a CRB check (which we can do free of charge) and may need additional training, which we should be able to provide as necessary. Once we receive contact we will add you to our database until we need you.
We are hoping to have a phone number which will be available Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, but at present we cannot afford to fund the telephone line. The telephone line will be an 0800 number and will cost £7.20 a month at present. The phone line will be answered by one of the Virtually Assisting team at no cost, but each call will cost us 4p per minute, charged by the telephone line provider. to enable us to do this we would need regular donations so that does not cut into our funding.