Blog written by Isha Jain, Volunteer with Learn for Life Enterprise 2020
Learn for Life Enterprise is a charitable organisation that caters for people from all over Sheffield by providing them support, training and advice.
They benefit the local community by looking after the hard-to-reach members of the community, asylum seekers, refugees and older people. They deliver them a learning environment and an open space to grow in cohesion and peace.
I found out about Learn for Life through Sheffield Volunteering and started volunteering with them as a teaching assistant eight months back. I had been looking for an opportunity that would help me explore and learn at the same time, especially something that would give me an insight into teaching English and learning from experienced teachers.
Yet, the organisation gave me so much more than what I had expected. As I began working every Friday, I assisted to carry out conversation classes with different groups of people. Even though, with the pandemic and the lockdown, we couldn’t continue meeting for a while. We began meeting every Friday in different green spaces each week like the Botanical Gardens, Weston Park and the Amphitheatre. We maintained a proper socially distanced setting and also created a positive learning environment for everyone.
I can say that I have gained another family that I look forward to seeing every week, as each person has shared with me their own unique experience. I also realised that Sheffield is so much more diverse than I had thought before and I was able to encounter that openness, that acceptance and that willingness to learn from each other at Learn for Life.
One of my favourite experience was when we met at the Amphitheatre. Gill and Hayley, the director and co-founder of the organisation gave us a task to write a poem on Sheffield together. While we sat uphill, we could look over at the city and share what we admire about it. As we came up with ideas, they helped us combine it into a beautiful poem. That day struck out to me as most special as I shared a part of myself, as I shared poetry.
I feel that other students should volunteer since it opens up a horizon to discover and engage with an entirely different world. It is so much more than a nine to one monotony because each volunteering day is distinct one and you learn about all kinds of people from different age groups to different backgrounds and unimaginable memoirs. It is also such a refreshment when you already have a routine with your studies and assignments. The organisations are very flexible and you can alter your commitment to work with them.
Sheffield’s community is vast, it will really set out a momentous experience for someone who decides to volunteer with at least one organisation.
You can sign up and find out more about volunteering with Learn for Life Enterprise on the Sheffield Volunteering website (search ‘Learn for Life’) and also browse through various opportunities that suit you.
I am grateful because even though I decided to volunteer late, I can say that I have emerged as a better person.
Sheffield Volunteering 