I have greatly enjoyed the chance to – quite literally – roll up my sleeves and get stuck in volunteering with many charities and community groups all over the constituency in for my first Volunteering Week.
I wanted to use my time away from Parliament to draw attention to some of the excellent local groups and projects we have here in West Oxfordshire.
Over the course of this week, I have volunteered over 13 hours with many fantastic groups, including Guideposts, Bridewell Organic Gardens, Thames Path volunteers, Volunteer Link Up, Base 33, Witney Dementia Action Alliance and the BBOWT at Chimney Meadows.
Each organisation is made of volunteers who provide an excellent service, either to keep our areas of natural beauty clean and visitor-friendly, or those who help vulnerable residents to meet new people and learn a new skill. I want to thank those who let me join in this week and hope I was able to make these busy days a little easier – I am proud to have become chief pot-washer with Guideposts!
No matter how busy we are, we can all afford to give up a small part of our time to give back to the communities that make our area so special. There are so many ways to get involved, through giving your time or specific skills to help projects, and I have highlighted just a handful of the projects taking place around West Oxfordshire.
