Volunteers’ Week – a special thank you from the Dot Dot Dot team

Volunteers’ Week is a time to recognise and celebrate the countless volunteers up and down the country who make invaluable contributions to good causes every day. As a social enterprise that has provided affordable housing to volunteers in their hundreds, we wanted to hold an event to say a special thank you to our guardians for all of the fantastic ways in which they’ve impacted positively on their communities.

Dot Dot Dot Founder, Katharine, saying thank you and explaining our social mission

With many members of the Dot Dot Dot team in attendance, this was a chance for our guardians to meet with us in person, feedback their experiences of guardianship, and network with other guardians. We were thrilled to feel so much positivity emanating throughout the evening!

Among our guests were representatives from Toynbee Hall, Salvation Army, Forest Recycling Project and Creatives Against Poverty, who were there to provide information on how guardians can get involved in their projects.

Toynbee Hall has been operating in the East End since 1884, and takes measures to address the causes and subsequent impacts that poverty inflicts on communities both in the East End and surrounding neighbourhoods. Recently, several of our guardians have engaged with their volunteer-led projects to investigate both how the experience of renting can be improved for young people in Tower Hamlets in order to prevent cases of homelessness, and to help develop safer and stronger communities in the borough.

Forest Recycling Project is dedicated to reducing waste by carrying out a number of practical measures involving reclaiming materials destined for landfill sites, and repurposing them to be sold on at an affordable rate. On the night, we heard about their reclaimed paint project, which is environmentally friendly, and cheap way to decorate your home. Guardians looking to transform their space take note! Find out more here.

The Salvation Army work with a number of disadvantaged people in communities, such as the homeless, the elderly, and sufferers of drug and alcohol abuse. You can get involved in one of their community programmes in your local area here, and help to offer crucial support to vulnerable groups.

We heard from Dot Dot Dot guardian, Monica, who is an active volunteer for Creatives Against Poverty. It’s a volunteer collective offering a range of skills based services and education workshops in order to tackle ethnic divides, lack of education, child labour, conflict, crime and much more. If you’d like to get involved to help build social resilience in marginalised communities, you can contact them to find out more here.

Thank you to everyone who made the evening a success, and in particular to our guardians. Without you, we couldn’t continue to support volunteering within local communities across the country.

If you have any volunteering opportunities that you’d like to share with us, you can get in touch via hello@dotdotdotproperty.com