After reaching a birthday milestone and deciding she wanted a bit of a career change, Carla decided that volunteering would be a great way to introduce her into a new world. As Carla’s son is a member at Horizon, she already had that personal connection.
“My son is autistic and I’ve had a lot of support with him over the years so I wanted to give something back,” Carla explained, “I liked what Horizon was about and thought it would be a good way to dip my toes in the water. I’ve really loved it.”
On what her favourite part of volunteering is, Carla really embodied Horizon’s value of ‘Young People First’.
“I love just meeting the young people. I’ve already got some regular faces that I see and they’re happy to see me coming the bridge which is such an ace feeling! The conversations you have with them are awesome and I just love that; it’s my favourite part about volunteering.”
The effect volunteering has had on Carla is even noticeable by her husband and friends.
“Chatting and getting to know them, I can’t believe how heartwarming that feeling is,” Carla explained, “I go home and speak to my husband about it and my friends and they say, “you’re glowing when you talk about it” and it’s because it’s an amazing feeling.”
Since volunteering at Horizon, Carla says that it has helped her to “realise I can step out of my comfort zone” which has led to new opportunities for her.
“Volunteering has given me the confidence to apply for a new job at a school. I truly believe if I hadn’t of volunteered at Horizon, it wouldn’t have put me on this path as I wouldn’t have had the courage to do it.
“It’s given me the confidence I needed to believe in myself.”
If you’d like to meet new people, learn new skills, have fun and most importantly, make a huge difference in your community, then please consider giving a little of your spare time to support local young people. Visit our Volunteer page to find out more.