May
25
by Catriona Campbell
At the James Bay Community Project (JBCP), we believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to contribute to the community and find a place of value. It is why we are thrilled to welcome our 50 plus community living volunteers every week. Over the years, we have developed strong working relationships with many different community living agencies and strong friendships with their clients and staff. We have enthusiastic teams buying groceries, making soup, baking cookies, preparing lunches, cleaning the kitchen, washing toys, bagging bread, sorting clothes, cleaning shoes, dusting shelves, collecting and recycling bottles, making crafts for sale and even rolling up loose change. JBCP hums with all the activity; meantime skills are honed, stories swapped, and much laughter is heard.
Just to give you a sample of the level of engagement: Mondays begin with a fabulous soup prepared by the "soup team" from Ozanam. Not only do the volunteers acquire valuable kitchen and serving skills, but they are an integral part of our Monday staff lunches. Some members have been coming for 10 years, so while we are all eating lunch together, we have a chance to chat about common interests and make new friends. Then another group from Community Living Victoria drops by to get the shopping list and buy the supplies for the week. After Monday lunch, a team comes from Garth Homer to clean the kitchen, which is quite a job given the high usage of our kitchen. Meantime over in our thrift store, the Community Closet, 2 people from Futures are busy cleaning shoes, dusting shelves and talking to customers.
Cameron and Melanie, soup volunteers at the Project. Photo Courtesy of JB Community Project
The rest of the week is equally as busy and inspiring. Because of the hard work and dedication of our community living volunteers and their workers, many programs at JBCP run more smoothly and the community as a whole benefits. So thank you to all our community living volunteers - your contributions make a huge difference every day and your positive energy adds a special dimension to our work here at JBCP.