Building Better Lives^® is a collaborative fundraising campaign led by the Summer Foundation which aims to resolve the issue of young people in nursing homes. In Australia over 3500 young people with disability (under 50 years of age) live in nursing homes. The aims of the Building Better Lives^® campaign are to:

• increase awareness of the issue and ways for the community and the corporate sector to get involved
• raise capital to develop the next generation of accommodation for young people with disability
• promote meaningful social inclusion for young people with disability
• intensify political focus on the issue.

A cornerstone of the Building Better Lives^® campaign, which is proving to be a highly effective awareness–raising tool, is the Building Better Lives^® Ambassador Program. Building Better Lives^® Ambassadors are young people with disability who are (or have been) directly affected by the issue of young people in nursing homes. Over the past twelve months, Ambassadors have been publicly sharing their stories across a range of forums to raise awareness and engage the general public in resolving the issue.

The greatest challenge for Building Better Lives^® is to raise awareness in the community of the issue of young people in nursing homes, and channel this awareness into support and engagement.

A volunteer wish was posted on the goodcompany website to assist with a “Tell Your Story” workshop – the first step of the process in engaging new ambassadors in the Building Better Lives® campaign, which helps young people with disability to articulate and present their personal story.

Carolyn Finis – Program Manager, Building Better Lives® tells us more....

"Participants in the “Tell Your Story” workshops typically have either an acquired brain injury, or a late onset degenerative neurological condition such as multiple sclerosis, the impact of each person’s disability is varied, and can include mobility and speech challenges, along with impaired memory and fatigue. Having an adequate number of people in attendance at these workshops is integral to the smooth running of the workshop process."

Emma Rogers (from Australian Unity Investments) volunteered for the “Tell Your Story” workshop - held in Geelong. The workshop involved approximately 7 hours of the volunteer’s time. The priority of the workshop is to facilitate one-on-one sessions with participants to help them clarify and articulate their individual stories. Emma assisted one of these small groups – acting as a scribe and identifying the themes and issues that emerged, forming a solid basis for writing up the participant’s story.

Emma is pictured below (far left), along with the young woman with a disability she worked with (pictured in the centre).

Emma contributed a written reflection of her volunteer experience to our recent bi-monthly e-newsletter. Emma wrote:

"I found my participation in the Tell Your Story workshop an incredibly valuable experience. I had some awareness of the issue facing young people living in aged care homes but I had no sense of the degree to which this situation was so totally inappropriate for young people. The fact that even the most basic things we enjoy as humans, such as food, activity and the company of others is all geared towards the needs of a 70 –plus dementia patient struck me as a startling inequity and yet something I had not comprehended before.

I was so moved by the sense of hope and optimism amongst the participants and the carers. It really brought it home to me that no matter what a person’s needs and abilities, we all share the human desire to live our lives to the fullest with a sense of purpose and fun. I felt completely privileged to be part of the Tell your Story workshop."

Having Emma contribute to the workshop not only enabled the smooth operating of the workshop, but also helped fast-track the process of writing up the story of one of the workshop participants.

Tips for managing skilled volunteers

Due to the vulnerability and challenges of working with young people with disability, our experience with engaging volunteers is limited. Benefiting from skilled volunteers is certainly an area we would like to explore in greater detail. For the Summer Foundation, this would be most likely to take the form of discrete opportunities, which would be time-limited and linked directly to projects or events.

We recognise that any volunteering role that involves working with young people with disability potentially involves risk – risk to both the young person with disability, and the volunteer. Managing this risk is of paramount importance, so in addition to a confidentiality process in the lead up to the recent “Tell Your Story” workshop, the Summer Foundation conducted a debriefing process for all volunteers immediately following the workshop.

Posting this wish on goodcompany was a positive first time experience for the Summer Foundation. The posting process was simple, yet detailed enough to enable a specific description of the project and the skill-set required. The experience was rewarding and beneficial. The Summer Foundation subsequently posted a second wish, focusing on a very different skill-set. This wish is currently being fulfilled, and the Summer Foundation looks forward to further successful partnerships with skilled volunteers through goodcompany.