Paul’s volunteering journey
Paul who came through the volunteering Wandsworth platform after a successful google search of “Wandsworth Volunteering” is a resident of Battersea and is currently a volunteer at one of our provider charities on the platform, Power 2 Connect. Paul who has previous volunteering experience at the London 2012 Olympics is no stranger to the world of volunteering.
Having registered to the Volunteering Wandsworth platform and seeing all the roles available found that Power to Connects posted volunteering opportunity caught his attention. Paul says he “thought it was an interesting fit”. Paul focuses on the digital champion and digital drop ins aspect of the Power 2 Connects work.
Paul has a background in business, financial exclusion and digital exclusion which he is very keen on. He also has an interest in volunteering, some spare time and lives locally which has also been a driving force behind deciding to volunteer.
Paul has been volunteering with Power 2 Connect for at least a year starting in September 2024. Doing 2-hour sessions every 2 weeks and more days when he is available. The process of joining the Power 2 Connect team was a quick process with Paul shadowing and assisting with helping the service users early on. Joining Power 2 Connect was not about gaining skills for Paul but about offering his time.
Power 2 Connect’s sustainability work and Pauls thoughts on their work
Paul feels it is very interesting how the sustainability piece comes into the work that is done around donations and grants of hardware. Donations come in and things are tidied up and cleaned up both physically and from a software basis and passed on to people who might not have access to a tablet or laptop to help them with their homework or job applications. This is both a digital exclusion matter and also solving another problem around sustainability. It’s helping perfectly working equipment that may no longer be useful for the initial purpose it was bought whether by the council or individual and giving it a new life which helps to avoid and reduce the amount of e-waste caused.
It’s a passion of Pauls that we avoid things going into landfill believing that the best way is not to recycle but to instead reuse. Paul knows that the reused equipment may have only years left of use but believes that this is better than having to get new resources out of the ground and putting old resources into the ground unnecessarily. The digital exclusion and sustainability create a beautiful virtuous circle whereby Power 2 Connect is helping the community to use resources in a way that would never be possible if you were trying to buy things off the shelf and providing access as well as the skills to use the equipment and give it another life.
This hopefully helps young people to succeed in their schooling which only then goes on down the chain and down the generations to help people change the world in whatever career it is that they are doing. You have to look at the long term view of how these small aspects can have a snowball effect further down through life, which excites me. There might be someone there who without the laptop wouldn’t get those marks, wouldn’t get that degree and wouldn’t do something amazing whether that is healing people, creating amazing literature or whatever it is that they are going to do by having access to those tools and those skills.
Paul’s thoughts on his impact at Power 2 Connect through volunteering in the community
I feel good knowing that I can help chip away at confusion or a lack of knowledge, and hopefully someone leaves with a bit more understanding than when they arrived. A lot of what I do is about building confidence, giving people the chance to experiment and apply what they’ve learned. When that happens, they’re able not only to solve problems themselves but also to pass on what they’ve learned to others. It feels great to know I’m making a difference in someone’s life.
I also enjoy helping to fix and repurpose laptops and being part of the team working toward this bigger purpose. Power 2 Connect are very good at keeping volunteers informed about the wider impact of our work, which makes a big difference. I see regular service users coming back to the drop-ins, which shows both how valuable the service is and how much people want to keep learning.
It’s fantastic to see that growth. When people return, you notice their confidence has grown, their skills are building, and the conversations move beyond the basics. That’s when you know real progress is happening.
Paul enjoys volunteering for now whilst he has the time and hopes to continue with Power 2 Connect.
To volunteer or support Power 2 Connect click here.