I would firstly like to thank Alison and the Careers Network for providing the opportunity to get involved with the local community. I would also like to thank Aysha, our project supervisor and the team at ODARA for allowing us to help, and for bringing light to a great organisation which supports some of the most vulnerable women within Moseley and the surrounding areas.
The project I developed, alongside a team of 4 other students and a business mentor was designed to help organise referrals which came in, recommending support for vulnerable women, from institutions such as the police and PREVENT. Alongside this, we had planned to assist in re-developing ODARA’s mentoring scheme which would have aided the women in improving their wellbeing, through greater socialisation and integration in activities provided by ODARA. Initially, the project guidelines appeared rather ambiguous, with only domestic violence being a highlighted aspect which made me apprehensive to commit to, due to the unclear nature of the project, however I knew that no matter what was involved, it would be a valuable way to develop my skills, particularly my teamwork abilities.
The project began slowly, with contrasting availability between team members, and academic deadlines interfering, it was difficult to arrange meetings with our team leader to discuss her current referral and mentoring systems. However, this allowed the use of initiative on our behalves because we were able to research solutions independently, for example the idea to find similar organisations with whom we could gain referral inspiration from meant we could all compile individual sources and combine them.
I felt personally compelled to be involved in this project because domestic violence and surrounding issues are of significant interest to me, they are highly emotive topics which spurred on our willingness to commit to the scheme, even when the ability to reach Aysha was limited. Furthermore, I knew that volunteering would be a constructive use of my time, and would enable me to gain greater knowledge of topics relating to my course, Social Policy and Criminology. The experience shocked me at the severity of issues, with radicalisation being a key concern of local communities and organisations, where I had previously questioned media overrepresentation of such issues, here I learnt that it is a genuine concern for vulnerable women. This has taught me that I may like to get further involved with resolving issues such as radicalisation and has heightened my desire to learn more about risk factors and consequences, thus boosting my self-awareness.
Overall the project developed well, despite not everyone being able to attend all meetings, we co-ordinated sharing of information so that everyone was included and up-to-date. We felt that it worked best for everyone to expand on certain aspects of the report which we could then return to Aysha, complete in a concise format, improving our ability to be meticulous as individuals but then being able to provide support to one-another whenever necessary, thus helping our team work capabilities. We made a group decision to focus solely on referrals and reduce our involvement in mentoring as we had limited resources and time-scale so felt that we could produce a higher quality piece of work by focussing on referrals only. This worked effectively as our final referrals report was thorough, and over 30 pages long.
The reaction from both Alison and Aysha were highly positive, with Aysha commenting that “I didn’t expect such professionalism and what they produced on their own. It’s blown me away. They are ready for work.”
The project was a great way to network, problem-solve and build up teamworking and communicative skills which are bound to be of lifelong use. It exceeded my expectations in terms of skill-building and has given me a greater respect for small business owners and their relentless dedication to their jobs which I was previously less appreciative of, and will carry through in future life. Although there was a period of questioning our abilities, the team persevered and encouraged one another which was essential to carrying on and being able to produce a high-quality report.
Client Feedback:
“I didn’t expect such professionalism and what they produced on their own. It’s blown me away. They are ready for work.”