Hampshire Scouts In Hospitals volunteers for ten years
Volunteer scouting organisation, Hampshire Scouts in Hospitals, is now in its tenth year of volunteering at Naomi House & Jacksplace.
Naomi House & Jacksplace was the first charity that the organisation supported back when they were established in 2014, alongside hospitals in Southampton, Portsmouth and Basingstoke.
Everyone from Hampshire Scouts in Hospitals volunteers their time and efforts bringing a host of activities to local hospitals and to our hospices.
John Stevens, Acting Manager of Hampshire Scouts in Hospitals, shared with us what volunteering at our hospices means to him:
Hampshire Scouts in Hospitals aims to create activities that stimulate and relieve boredom, and allow people to have fun. I stand by the old Beavers’ saying: ‘Fun and friends’.
We combine our experience within scouting groups we’ve been a part of in the past to come up with exciting, engaging and stimulating activities. We theme each set of activities and try our best to cater for different abilities. Flexibility is really important to tailor the activities to each individual child or young adult – we do a lot of thinking on our feet when we understand what the person is interested in or just wants to do there and then.
We have enormous fun with the children, siblings, parents and staff at Naomi House & Jacksplace. I love mixing with everyone and love to see the amazing reactions that the children and young adults have to the activities we put on. It’s amazing when we manage to find an activity or sensory item that they can connect with and you can see it in their reaction.
We once hosted an ‘Olympics’ outside in the Naomi House garden, which involved dinosaur racing! The hospice staff pushed a bed out with a young girl in it and draped the ropes to the ‘dinosaur race’ across her arms, and she thought it was hilarious. It’s the little things that mean the most.
Our most recent visit to Naomi House & Jacksplace involved Halloween and autumn themed activities. We created dancing ghosts with static energy from balloons and some tissue paper, and did some drawing and colouring of dinosaurs – learning about the concept of camouflage. We also just had a lot of fun with balloons!
I take sheer pleasure in coming to what people might assume is a very sad place, and it’s actually the complete reverse. Naomi House & Jacksplace is a very happy place.
Claire Potterton, Play & Activities Team Leader, said:
We are so grateful for the incredible support we receive from Hampshire Scouts in Hospitals. It's fantastic to have visitors come in to the hospices to share their skills and bring fun, creative and unique activities to the children, young adults and families staying. Thank you so much to the team for bringing so much fun and joy to everyone at Naomi House & Jacksplace.
Our Wonderful Volunteers
We couldn’t do what we do without the incredible support of volunteers like the Hampshire Scouts in Hospitals. Find out more about our wonderful volunteers and the different areas, inside and outside of our hospices, where you can make a difference as a Naomi House & Jacksplace volunteer.