Scope is a national disability organisation whose focus is people with cerebral palsy, a physical condition that affects movement. Scope’s services include creating early years, education, and independent living and employment opportunities for all disabled people.
The Scope Charity Shop in Fleetwood is managed by Sharon Kenny who started her career with Scope as a volunteer. After volunteering for a year Sharon was offered the assistant managers job and she has recently been promoted to manager. The staff and volunteers have recently won a County Award for the highest percentage of sales for the whole of the County.
Sharon says that through volunteering for Scope she has had the opportunity not only to gain full time paid employment but also to access the training she needed in order to equip her with the skills required to manage and develop staff in a retail environment.
Sharon is keen to help her volunteers move on through mentoring and supporting them through training. Over the last 3 years Sharon has helped me support 3 volunteers with severe disabilities who have become part of the “Scope shop family” enjoying participating in social events and fundraising activities.
From a personal point of view Sharon gets a lot of satisfaction from seeing volunteers coming out of their shells and achieving things they never thought they would. Sharon believes that it is important to employ a broad spectrum of volunteers to enrich all of our lives.
Volunteers learn to prepare merchandise for display in the shop, keep the shop clean and tidy and can work on the till and serve customers. Sharon provides volunteers with a full induction on the work of Scope, its staff, and volunteer policies. All volunteers are provided with a named supervisor and given support, supervision and feedback on a regular basis. Scope reimburses volunteers for reasonable out-of-pocket expenses and gives volunteers discounts on goods. Sharon can provide references for volunteers if they need one for paid work, study or another voluntary position. Sharon says 20 percent of her volunteers move on into paid employment. Although Sharon is always sorry to lose good volunteers she is delighted by their achievements.
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Next year Sharon is planning to offer her volunteers NVQ Level 2 in Retail through Train to Gain.
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For all these reasons Sharon Kenny was our Star of the Month for December 2008.
If you would like to nominate an organisation or volunteer based in the Wyre area to be Star of the Month for January 2009, please contact Eileen Wood, Wyre Forward Project Worker.
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Star of the Month - December 2008