What it's like to Volunteer at Connecting Up in 2019

I have been volunteering with Connecting Up for a little over two years now, during which I have also been studying Mechatronic Engineering at Adelaide University. Before moving to Adelaide for university, I used to live on the Eyre Peninsula, therefore volunteering for me was an opportunity to meet new people. The concept also interested me as I felt it would help develop my confidence in a workplace environment and allow me to do something different besides studying. These are the reasons I initially decided to volunteer, however my reasons for choosing to stay with Connecting Up over these last two years are slightly different.

 

 

Connecting Up has given me the opportunity to meet each of the goals I had with volunteering, as well as expand on them. I am always being supplied with new and interesting training programs to further my skillset, such as the recent ‘Train the Trainer – Build Your CV’ by Infoxchange. This training gave me insight as to useful teaching methods, as well as all around skills on CV writing. I have had the opportunity to put some of these skills to use, in particular the teaching strategies when helping new volunteers learn how to use the SACommunity database. 

 

 

To further help new volunteers, I have recently learned how to use the program Visio. This program is a flow chart creation software, therefore I have used it to create flowcharts instructing on aspects such as how to approach a phone call, or what to do if an organisation needs updating. I have also learned how to use Camtasia, a video editing software. With this software, I wrote, recorded, voiced and edited a training video on claiming a listing which you can find here.

 

 

Learning how to use these programs was a fantastic experience, however for myself and a majority of other volunteers here, most of our time is spent researching community organisations to update our database. This includes searching the far corners of the internet to find traces of a group, making phone calls to the group or organisations associated with them, and eventually editing the entry. These tasks have given me the opportunity to practice research techniques, talking on the phone in a professional manner, and editing techniques when working with large databases.

 

You may be wondering how these skills can help someone studying engineering. To me, these abilities are vital for any workplace. Learning how to approach difficult conversations when on the phone is incredibly useful, and volunteering here has allowed me to learn and practice tactics to help the conversation go as smoothly as possible. I have had the chance to work with a range of different people from a variety of backgrounds. Overall, Connecting Up has been a fantastic place to develop my office skills and overall confidence in a workplace environment, which was one of my main goals I wanted to achieve through volunteering.

 

If volunteering is something you are interested in yourself, examine your interests, look at your skillset and consider organisations or areas you could help and would like to learn more about. I strongly believe volunteering is a fantastic way to develop skills while also helping your community, and for me Connecting Up has been a terrific organisation to do this with.

 

~ Sophie