The Honeypot Children’s Charity is delighted to announce, during Volunteers Week, that it has been awarded a Waitrose Partner (staff member) secondment via the John Lewis Partnership Foundation. The Partner will hold a dedicated Volunteer Coordinator role at Honeypot House in Hampshire for the next six months.
The announcement comes as charities and organisations across the UK celebrate the incredible contribution volunteers make to communities during Volunteers’ Week.
The secondment marks an important step forward in strengthening Honeypot’s volunteering programme across the local community and creating a longer-term volunteering model that can be rolled out nationally across the charity’s houses in England, Wales and Scotland.
The new volunteer role, which will be undertaken by Debra Gates through the John Lewis Partnership Golden Jubilee Trust secondment programme, will focus on building a practical and scalable volunteer infrastructure across Honeypot. This will include developing volunteer systems and processes to support registrations, communications, training and activity tracking, while helping to create a more joined-up and consistent volunteer experience across all sites.
As part of Honeypot’s 30th Anniversary year, the systems will initially be trialled through events and activities linked to Honeypot House in Hampshire before being expanded further across the charity.
The Volunteer Coordinator will also support the recruitment and training of new volunteers across Hampshire and Wales, helping to establish clear safeguarding guidance, volunteer communications and recognition processes to ensure volunteers feel valued, supported and confident in their roles.
Alongside this, the role will help develop more sustainable systems for managing donated items across the charity’s houses, supporting volunteers to help sort, organise and coordinate donations so that resources are distributed effectively and in line with the specific needs of each house.
Simmi Woodwal, Chief Executive Officer at The Honeypot Children’s Charity, said:
“We are incredibly grateful to the John Lewis Partnership Foundation for providing a secondment for this important role, particularly as we celebrate Volunteers’ Week and recognise the enormous contribution volunteers make to Honeypot.
Volunteers play a vital part in helping us create happy memories and brighter futures for young carers and children experiencing difficult circumstances. This role will help us strengthen and grow our volunteering programme, creating better support and stewardship for volunteers while also helping us build sustainable systems that can support Honeypot nationally in the future.”
Debra Gates, Volunteer Coordinator at The Honeypot Children’s Charity, said:
“I am honoured to have been selected for the John Lewis Partnership Golden Jubilee Trust Secondment. I am truly elated to step into the Volunteer Coordinator role at Honeypot House.
The work of volunteers is vital to the success of the children’s well-deserved respite breaks. I look forward to seeing the smiles and hearing the children’s laughter, as I can’t think of anything more rewarding.”
The Honeypot Children’s Charity support young carers and children aged 5-12 experiencing difficult circumstances through residential Respite Breaks, Health and Wellbeing Breaks, and ongoing wraparound support designed to build confidence, reduce isolation and improve wellbeing.
For anyone interested in volunteering with Honeypot please visit: Volunteering | The Honeypot Children’s Charity
