New volunteers are on board, business cards have arrived and are being handed out, and Claire’s positive attitude keeps driving the ‘English Volunteering Project’, run through Volontärbyrån, Sweden’s Volunteer Organization, alive and focused.
She writes “I’m very excited as my business cards have arrived. I’m a great believer in business cards (along with wishing on a star and the restorative effects of a nice glass of wine).
Having a business card gives the impression that I am organised and professional (whatever the reality may be) and saves that horrible scrabble round the bottom of my handbag for a pen and paper to give someone my contact details. It also feels like The English Volunteering Project is somehow more real now – there is hard evidence that it exists in the form of 500 pieces of printed card.
Up until now I’ve made my own business cards for my own personal use. In a new city/country I’m constantly meeting new people and it makes life so much simpler to be able to give someone a card with my contact details on it. I use www.businesscardland.com which enables me to produce some really rather professional results. But I do like my nice new, professionally printed cards.
Another exciting development is that The English Volunteering Project now has its own volunteers (in addition to me, that is). Stefanie is helping me research what funding opportunities may be available for the project from foundations in Sweden. A huge thank you to her for taking on this very important, but maybe not so exciting task. And a couple more people are helping to put together ideas for other ways of fundraising – watch this space! Thanks also must go to all the people who take the time to make suggestions or who say something nice and encouraging about the project – every little helps.
At the moment I’m focusing on fundraising, so if you have any ideas, experience in this area, or contacts that you think might be useful to the project, please get in touch. If you’re interested in volunteering but feel that your skills lie elsewhere, try using Google Translate to take a look at the volunteering opportunities available at www.volontarbyran.org. You might not find an opportunity that’s perfect for you, but if you see an organisation that you think looks interesting, why not contact them and see if there are any other ways you could work with them? Just remember to call them and not rely only on email.”
By Claire Thomas
Check back in a few weeks to hear more about Claire’s progress.
Claire Thomas was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Northern Ireland and has lived in Scotland, England, Germany and now Sweden (where she hopes to stay for a good long while). In this blog she shares her experience of setting up a project focused on helping non-Swedish speakers to find volunteering opportunities with non-profit organisations in Stockholm.
If you are interested in the project you can contact Claire by email at [email protected]
Like us on Facebook to follow the project’s development – go to ‘The English Volunteering Project in Stockholm’.
The project is part of Volontärbyrån www.volontarbyran.org
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