Lottery windfall to boost Leeds volunteering

V A £193,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund will boost the number — and training — of volunteers within Leeds Jewish organisations.

Leeds Jewish Representative Council will use the Lottery cash to appoint a community volunteer and engagement officer for the next three years — responsible for recruiting, co-ordinating and training volunteers. It will also go towards activities and training for volunteers and lay leaders.

The successful applicant will also work to match volunteers with LJRC’s 50-plus affiliated organisations.

Rep council president Lisa Baker welcomed the award as “an opportunity to bring fresh ideas and a new energy to our community”.

Local organisations would have access “to a community of volunteers who possess a host of diverse skills and experience, which will help them to deliver their services more efficiently.

“Increasingly, we have been moving towards working more collaboratively with our partner organisations. The role of community volunteer and engagement officer places this at the very heart of what we aim to achieve.”

LJRC executive director Susie Gordon told the JC that 40 per cent of respondents to a community research project had indicated that they would be willing to volunteer, or volunteer more.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for anyone who wants to help and will do all we can to encourage this in order to strengthen and support our entire infrastructure.”

She added that the Leeds community had been giving serious thought to the future with more than 150 people taking part in a “conversation” in November at which a variety of subjects were discussed. These included how to make Leeds an attractive place for Jewish people to live, how to engage younger people and how to instil a love of Judaism among the community’s youth.

Another topic was “how will we care for our elderly if Donisthorpe [care home] doesn’t succeed”?

Ms Gordon explained that the consultation was part of a longer term process to keep the community strong, covering both infrastructure and “our relationships with each other. If you don’t know anyone in the community, it can feel isolating.”

The process was about “delivering what is not only right for now but right for our future. We need to talk to each other and work towards building a vision we all want to be part of.”

We want to make it easy for anyone who wants to help’