Charities across Cardiff say they’re in urgent need of volunteers.
They say the shortage has left some charity shops having to close during the week.
Elizabeth Newman has volunteered in The George Thomas Hospice Care charity shop in Cathays for almost eleven years.
She says the shop currently has 25-26 volunteers but this isn’t enough: “I’ve had to close on a Wednesday morning in recent times. I had one volunteer working it but I just couldn’t cover four or five shifts in a month as well as all the other things I have to cover for.”
Scott Robinson volunteers for Ty Hafan. He says he’s experienced the same thing: “The shop’s going to be closed for up to an hour. When you’re only open for eight hours a day that hour is a sizable chunk of time you know you’re looking at 12.5% of your entire daily takings and that’s a lot of money to miss out and you know it’s a huge huge drawback having to close but we have to do these things sometimes.”
A volunteering recruitment event has been happening today in the All Nations Centre in Cardiff to encourage more people to get involved.
One of the charities at today’s event was Good Neighbours in North Cardiff. Duncan Pugh is the charity co-ordinator and says he doesn’t think people have enough time to volunteer.
“People increasingly, I think, are money rich but time poor and it is a struggle to recruit volunteers because of that and of course increasingly there’s a lot more competition to recruit volunteers.”
Action on Elder Abuse Cymru were another charity at the event. Rhiannon Roberts who works for them says people should change the way their think about volunteering.
“I find it quite difficult to try and persuade people who work as well to maybe come on board. I think sometimes people have a perception that it’s something to do when they’re not working, if they’re looking for roles maybe to expand their experience they don’t always necessarily see it as something to compliment their working life.”
The event’s organisers say they hope today’s event will encourage more people to try volunteering.
