The Wallich
The Wallich is delighted to announce that after months of hard work, and a rigorous assessment process, we have achieved Investing in Volunteers status. Jan Balsdon, Involvement and Volunteer Lead Officer for The Wallich, says: ‘As an organisation we are aware of the immense added value that volunteers bring and currently have 100 volunteers, delivering over 800 hours a month of added value support to the charity. We are immensely proud of our volunteers and grateful for their time, skills, passion and commitment. Some of our work simply would not be possible without our volunteers and we hope this award will ensure a benchmark against which we can measure our performance and offer consistently excellent support to them.’

We were also very pleased to announce that in their final report, the Investing in Volunteers panel made absolutely no recommendation for improvement to our current systems and processes.

We received some very positive feedback from IiV about our volunteering practices. They said:

‘The Wallich imparts a holistic approach to the importance of volunteers throughout the whole organisation, all further enhanced by close and mutually supportive working practices. During assessment, it became apparent that volunteers are treated with the same respect as staff and that the benefits of involving volunteers in their work is of paramount importance to all members of the organisation.’

Some of our dedicated Volunteers were also interviewed by the panel and gave perhaps the most important and heartfelt recommendation of volunteering at The Wallich:

‘I have been a volunteer with The Wallich since 2006 and I love my time here. Everyone cares for each other, I feel totally supported and our aim is to always get the best results for our clients. I would rather be at The Wallich than home…that’s how much I love it!”’

‘I have been a volunteer with The Wallich for eleven years, helping with the breakfast run. Everyone has been amazing and I wouldn’t leave for any reason….think I am here forever.’

This outstanding achievement is evidence of the good practice throughout The Wallich and in particular, that volunteers are given appropriate and meaningful roles, recruited fairly, trained, supported and included in all aspects of the team and organisational activities. As an organisation,we feel that this quality standard is evidence of our commitment to volunteers as well as recognition of the services that our volunteers deliver across Wales.