Volunteers Week: Sasha

Please note: this post is 66 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only

When I started volunteering for North London Cares, what I expected was to spend a few hours a week chatting to older people in the community over a coffee or tea.  

What I have experienced has been the complete opposite. Every social club is filled with laughter, shared interests, and a genuine sense of community that I’d never experienced before. Far from coffee mornings and bingo, in just one year of volunteering for North London Cares I have beat boxed with 4 x UK champion beatboxer, I’ve learnt to Charleston, I’ve performed a poem with other younger and older neighbours at the Barbican Centre, and I’ve attended creative writing classes run by professional author. 

I was drawn to North London Cares as feeling lonely and cut off in a city as vast and rapid-changing as London was a feeling that resonated with me. After my friends and I graduated and I moved back to London job-hunting, I found that many of my friends had either gone travelling or moved somewhere cheaper, and for the first time I felt a small glimpse at what loneliness felt like.  

The laughter, friendship and incredible conversations I have found at North London Cares lifted my spirits, and I am now delighted to belong to the Cares family as a regular volunteer. Joining the volunteering network at North London Cares hugely built my confidence, and has led to me trying things I never thought I would. 

The central ethos of North London Cares is that you can learn and try new things at any stage of life, and no matter whether you’re a beginner or a pro, everyone is welcomed with such warmth.   

It always feels strange calling North London Cares ‘volunteering’, as I now see attending the social clubs as simply catching up with friends, and evenings at the clubs always remain the highlight of my week.