How Helping Hands works

This month I thought that it would be a good idea to give readers an insight into the way in which Helping Hands is run - a typical day in the life of Helping Hands - if such a thing isn't a contradiction in terms!

In order to do this, I couldn't ask a more appropriate person than Liz P, the Telephone Co-Ordinator for Helping Hands.

Liz joined Helping Hands almost three years ago, when the Community Telephone Helpline became the Helping Hands line. She had been at Ralli Hall for some five years previously, running the Thursday Lunch Club ( and cooking for it !!) as well as helping in the office and looking after membership. She had got to know many of the mostly elderly visitors to Ralli Hall and welcomed the chance to continue seeing and helping them in some capacity.

The Helping Hands office staff comprises Liz P, Sarah W, who is the Helping Hands Co-Ordinator, and Liz S, the Administrator. Liz P's job is to take the initial call from those needing help and pass it on to Sarah and /or Liz. She answers the phone personally whenever possible. When she is not available an answer phone takes a message which is dealt with as soon as possible. The Helpline can be accessed from another phone or even a mobile so help is never very far away! Sarah and Liz S meet regularly to handle the administration, sometimes joined by Liz P. All three keep in touch on their computers. They spend an enormous amount of time on the telephone to each other, passing details of 'jobs' to do, finding volunteers and organising generally. Sarah is a whizz at matching volunteers to situations!

Liz P described the huge variety of calls for help that arrive via the telephone helpline. Sometimes the requests can be responded to simply and Liz considers them to be reasonably light-hearted. She told me about the call the helpline received from a non-Jewish woman who had been invited with her family to a Barmitzvah in London. She wanted to know what gift she should buy; what they all should wear and what to expect at the synagogue. Another non-Jewish lady said she had heard that "Jewish" chickens made the best broth and wanted to know where she could buy one. Many of the calls that are received are requests for shopping or lifts to hospital, doctors and dental appointments or lifts to London or to local events. Calls for help around the house are often hilarious and Helping Hands have been called upon to find someone to fix fallen curtains, stained tables, broken light bulbs and jammed doors amongst other things. Sometimes, especially after a Helping Hands tea party, a client will ring just to say thank-you and how much they had enjoyed themselves. Calls such as these, says Liz, are very heartening and make it all worthwhile.

Then, of course "there are the calls that come very, very early in the morning or very late at night and sometimes wake me up and frighten the socks off me". These are the serious requests, sometimes cries for help, and are largely confidential so obviously cannot be discussed here.

Liz says that a sense of humour is one of the most essential requirements to do her job. Luckily, she, Sarah and Liz share the same sense of fun which helps so much in doing the job.

So, there you have it - a day in the life of Helping Hands. You can see the huge variety of needs that have to be addressed and these calls for help could not be answered without a growing band of volunteers that we can turn to. To find out more about becoming a Helping Hands' volunteer please contact Helping Hands by telephoning 01273 747722, e-mailing helping-hands@ntlworld.com or logging on to www.helping-hands.org.