Volunteer Mentor keeps on giving

Bev Swan has been gifting her time as a mentor to young people for 4 years now. Every week, she finds regular time for her mentee, and since young refugees came to live locally, she has found even more time to gift to volunteer with them too.

Bev will be attending our ‘Helping the Helper’ - Trauma Informed Principles during a Crisis - training this month. It’s aimed at anyone who is supporting a refugee family across the UK:

Bev Swan

Host families

• Volunteers

• Therapists

• School staff

• Community workers etc. 

The training will explore how we support individuals impacted by war and the skills learned will be transferrable to supporting people in crisis.

How did Bev start volunteering with refugees?

“I picked up a message from a local Mosque that a team of organisers were looking for volunteers to run a holiday course for Afghan refugee children – they were looking for someone DBS registered – so after some thought and knowing that I had my background in teaching Drama in my favour, I offered to help.

“The children were not in school at the time and ranged from babies to 14/15-years-old. I continued to run more drama game groups during school holidays and then, since those initial sessions, I found out about regular weekday support that was taking place at a local hotel - where Afghan refugees are currently living.

“Using my mentoring and teaching skills, I now meet weekly on a one-to-one basis with one 14-year-old girl– we work in the communal area of the hotel and while language has been a barrier, we are overcoming that with our general chats and with all that we are achieving together. She has told me she wants to be a doctor, so where I can I have been supporting her with her academic studies.”

How will professional ‘Helping the Helper’ training support you?

“I know the training will help with my conversations with the young person I have been working with, as well as any interactions that I may have with other refugees onsite. We have recently started talking about her experiences and her journey to the UK after she and her family left their home and their dog behind – our chats have been tough on her emotionally. 

“I am continuing to support on a one-to-one basis and intend to use my training skills to do what I can to help her to start processing some of her experiences.”

“Additionally, from my experience during the drama game sessions, I found that it wasn’t just the language barrier that caused issues. At one point, I clapped my hands to gain the attention of the children and it caused an upsetting response – triggered by the loud sudden noise. Sadly, I felt I needed more advice to equip me to support the children at that time, it left me somewhat speechless and while we did move on, I was wary after that of making any sudden loud noises. Some ideas around managing situations akin to this would also be useful to have considering the volunteer role I continue to hold within the refugee community.

“I find all my time spent volunteering so enjoyable and rewarding, this is why I continue.”

You can learn more about forthcoming volunteering and training opportunities on our website. Bev has also shared more of her story in this story.