Diana at Ebor Gardens community cafe

Volunteered with the Ebor Gardens Community Café

The Ebor Gardens Community Café  is run from Ebor Gardens Community Centre. The café provides reasonably priced food to members of the local community. It is also attended by elderly people from a local residential home. The community centre is based in the Burmantofts area of Leeds. Burmantofts is an inner city area of high deprivation, and has one of the highest levels of unemployment in Leeds. It is a community in transition with increasing numbers of asylum seekers and refugees moving to the area.

Volunteers contribute to the café  by taking food orders, preparing and serving food.  They also offer a befriending role to those attending the café. A crèche is available for volunteer’s children to enable young parents to volunteer who may otherwise not be able to.

Diana was brokered by vinvolved Leeds into a volunteering placement at the community café in November 2008. She is interested in pursuing a career in social care and began volunteering to develop skills that would support her career choice.  Although Diana had volunteered previously in Poland, prior to signing up with vinvolved Leeds she had found it difficult to find voluntary work in England.

Diana answered the following questions about her time at Ebor Gardens:

Why did you start volunteering?

I had some spare time and I always like to help other people. That is a great joy for me.

What did you enjoy about volunteering at Ebor Gardens?

I enjoyed the atmosphere and communicating with people. I had a great supervisor Mrs Annette Logan. She is an open hearted person and she always was willing to help us.

Has it helped in your career and if so, how?

Yes it did. This has helped me enhance my social skills and developed my communication skills.

How has your volunteering helped you develop personally?

It helped me develop my confidence.

What things did you do at Ebor Gardens?

At the centre my duties include taking orders and serving food to customers from the community, assisting the elderly in wheelchairs. Also I was doing some crèche work.

Was volunteering at Ebor Gardens what you expected it to be?

Yes, it was even better that I expected it to be.

Will you continue to volunteer at Ebor Gardens? Why?

Yes, I would. I enjoyed my work, I met such friendly people and a great atmosphere.

What impact do you think the Community Café has on the local community?

The community café  helps build better community spirit and support for people and families.

Annette Logan runs the Ebor Gardens Community Café and has worked with vinvolved Leeds over the last year to expand her recruitment of volunteers to both the café and a play scheme that she runs for local children. She says:

    ‘I asked vinvolved Leeds to help me to bring more volunteers in to take part in the projects and keep the momentum going. I wanted to open up the opportunities to as many people as possible and by having a varied and mixed group of people this gave all involved a wide range of interaction and community development.

    Volunteers from the community in Burmantofts, able bodied volunteers, disabled volunteers, varied age range, varies ethnicities are all involved and are a valuable part of the work I am trying to do. Volunteers can access training, gain social skills, take part in team working and working on their own initiative.

    I would like to thank vinvolved Leeds for helping me with the volunteers they have sent to me. The parents from the school who are volunteers, community members and vinvolved Leeds are working together to make a real difference. A difference to themselves and all they work with. So I thank them all very much.’

Annette also commented on Diana’s contribution to the community café:

    ‘Diana is a Polish lady. She has worked for me in the Community Café. She is extremely calming and a lovely sweet nature. She has worked really well with the elderly from Green Acres Nursing home that come to the café.

    Diana has always been willing to learn and take on board new tasks set.

    Diana has now got a job and is very sad to leave us as we are for her to go. But she will do well in her job and make a real difference to the people she works with.’