Category: Life in The Well

The Well depends on volunteers to function.  I’m always encouraged with the sheer quality and commitment of our volunteers – they truly are a very special group of people.

However we need more!

We currently have gaps on both Wednesday morning and afternoon for the regular advice sessions.

Perhaps you would be interested in helping out by being a welcomer in the reception area?  We also need this help on a Wednesday.

If you can help out with any of the above – please get in touch.

 

 

Ever since I’ve been involved with The Well we’ve never closed for lunch.  It was often quiet enough for folks to have their lunch together, have a blether and change shifts.

I remember those days!

In recent years The Well has become so busy that there times the volunteers never see each other, perhaps the morning staff work well into the afternoon, and some have been seen sitting down for something to eat at 2.00  or even later.

We’ve all just got used to this way of working, but since The Well is about community and fellowship for the whole team, we’re going to try things differently for the next few weeks!

From today we will close at 12:30, the afternoon folks will come and join us for our prayer time and have lunch together for those who want.  Initially this will be just for 1/2 hour, but who knows we might love it so much that we need to have longer.

Hopefully our service users will also benefit from a staff team who are more refreshed!

 

A few weeks ago I got a message from a friend that I’ve known for many years.  Sarah enquired about The Well and how things were going.  She has a marketing background, and as we talked the idea of Sarah working alongside Penny became a possibility which then became a reality two weeks later!

We’re delighted that Sarah has joined our team – 7 hours a week.  She brings additional expertise and enthusiasm to team, and we are thrilled that she wants to use her God given gifts and be a part of what He is doing in and through The Well.

Sarah has come in on Monday evenings, so she can experience first hand the work that goes on here.  She was thrilled on her first Monday to be able to tell one of our service users that he was due a tax rebate of over £200! Nice way to start:)

Sarah spent part of her childhood in Thailand, where her parents were missionaries & she brings an understanding of cross-cultural relationships with her.  She is married with two young children.

Every so often I have reason to reflect on the great bunch of volunteers we have here – this morning Joyce popped in.  I said “Are you Jaan today?”  She said “No, I’m just dropping this file in.”  She had taken someone’s file away to put together a summary of his case for him to take to his MP.  The summary has run to 5 pages of bullet points!  It must have taken her hours and I’ve no doubt that Mr Waheed will be be very grateful.  I know that several of our volunteers have done such things for people in the past, regularly going the second mile – determined to follow up and do their best for folks.  Well done team!

 

 

The Well is always changing and adapting to the needs and challenges of our service users.  We’ve seen a change in the demographics of Govanhill, and this has been reflected in the folks who come to The Well.  When I first started as a volunteer back in 1998(!) the majority of our service users came from Pakistan – about 85%!  As Mary says now “the whole world is here.”

Up until early this year we had a growing number of Roma service users, but since I came back from my sabbatical, I’ve noticed a marked decline in the number of Roma using The Well.  Many have moved either to other parts of the UK (Doncaster!) or back to Slovakia.  Last week one of our regulars was telling me that he and his family are moving back – having known them for  more than10 years, I felt sad – but glad to know that we had made a difference to them, and they were keen to come and say goodbye.

In the early days of The Well we could keep a range of benefit forms in stock in The Well, now much of our work is done online and we no longer even keep forms, indeed we regularly have to ask people to go the library to have the form printed off. (91 pages for an EEA form, 4 times a day would be way beyond our printing budget!)

We still operate a drop in service, but are now piloting restricting visits to 1 hour (where possible) both for the sake of the other service users, and for the well being of the volunteer staff.

We’re still really busy! 4 people working on advice this morning and there’s a queue of 8 people!

We’re still supporting some very vulnerable people, a young single dad who has found the whole system of claiming child benefit and child tax credits quite overwhelming; a young woman with many physical, mental and emotional difficulties who on finding The Well, said she had found “Angels.”  Last week it was wonderful that a woman we had supported for at least 15 years, came back to visit us. (She lives quite far from The Well now)

We’re still dependent on individuals and churches supporting us – we have applied to various charitable trusts, but the core of our support comes from dedicated individuals & churches. Maybe you would like to support The Well, but you’ve never been in a position to do so? Well now if you shop online, then it is possible to support The Well through Give as you live. Simply register with Give as you live, nominate The Well as your chosen charity, and then go shopping from there.  You’ll see we can profit anything from 1% of your total shop.

Of course Give Net is another option to give directly to The Well!

Most importantly of all we know that the same God who was in our beginnings, is with us still and He doesn’t change.    “For I, the Lord, do not change.”  Malachi 3:6