We sat down to chat with Ziman Wu (Mandy), a final year Psychology with Education student about her experience volunteering with Centre 404 and Mediorite.
Could you provide an insight into your volunteering with Centre 404 and Mediorite?
I started volunteering with Centre 404, a charity working with children with autism and learning disabilities. At the start, I helped at the reception which involved administration tasks, including booking rooms, emails, letting people in etc. Then I started helping them out for their annual survey which involved guiding service users and their carers through filling the survey out. This role also involved entering data on excel, making graphs and at the end helping to create the report including, formatting it on Canva. I found helping with the survey really interesting.
I also volunteer at Centre404 on a more casual basis. They have a Friday Disco for all their service users, so sometimes I go there and help. They basically have events every night and whenever I am free, I go help out.
For Mediorite, I volunteered for their Film festival, a one-off opportunity where I reviewed films created by young film producers as part of a competition. Due to the number of films being submitted, I helped to find out which films would be eligible to enter into the final draw and later potentially win. It was just a day’s commitment for three to four weeks. I found this really fun, as I was just watching films.
Both organisations are quite different, what attracted you to volunteer for both of them?
I was attracted to volunteer for Centre 404 because it was similar to my degree. I aim to work in mental health, not necessarily with people with learning disabilities, but I believe this experience will be valuable despite that. I have worked with kids with autism before, so I thought I could also engage in something similar. I wanted to keep volunteering for them because I've met some great people there.
For Mediorite, it just looked fun, and I wanted to watch the films if I’m totally honest!
How have you found the support from Centre 404 when volunteering regularly?
Centre 404 has a Volunteering Coordinator, Caroline, who was my main person of contact, she was just so supportive and is always asking what I want to do and help with. When I was working at the reception I told her that I am finding reception sort of boring and she was like ‘Ok, you said before that you like doing surveys’ so she sent me the opportunity to support the roll out of their annual survey and of course I was interested. She is always keeping me updated with all the new opportunities that come out.
In general, everyone is so nice, and the environment is so great to work in. I do feel really supportive and they’re very friendly and approachable. I am not afraid to ask questions.
What key skills have you gained from volunteering?
Centre 404 has helped me feel more comfortable with communicating with other people. I’ve never worked with adults with learning disabilities, so I’ve learned quite a lot as they are very different from each other and very different from children with learning disabilities.
Working with a team in a professional setting outside of university was definitely new to me. I gained a great insight into how it is like running, a team and a whole organisation like Centre 404, who have existed for around 70 years. They support so many people and I’ve been able to gain an insight into the different support systems they provide including supportive housing, which I have been to.
I was also able to improve my skills with Canva, through generating the report at the end of the survey. To analyse the data, I engaged with thematic analysis when making the results more readable, which helped with my degree. We created two survey versions: one for managers and department heads, and another for service users, ensuring accessibility for all.
Did you find volunteering manageable with university?
I volunteered in my first year and then stopped in my second year due to my workload. But I resumed volunteering in my final year as it was relatively easier because of less classes, at least for me! I decided to volunteer again because it is a great way to gain experience, meet new people and it was relatively flexible which was important to me, especially during exam season when I cannot commit as much.
Are there any challenges you face when volunteering?
As some service users of Centre 404 can have some challenging behaviours I have had to learn not only how to be as non-judgemental as possible but also to be patient and calm.
Would you recommend volunteering? Why should other people volunteer?
I really recommend people to volunteer for multiple reasons. Firstly, because it is a great way to gain experience especially for Psychology students. Second, it's a good way to meet new people and make friends. And finally, volunteering helps with preparing you to work in the real world.
The UCL site is a very good place to find great volunteering opportunities, there are so many! Everyone can find something that they are interested in on the website.
Thank you so much to Mandy for sharing her wonderful experience! If you would like to get involved in volunteering, make sure to check out our Volunteering Directory to find all of the latest opportunities across London!