"I’d like to start by saying a huge, huge thank you to all our incredible RISE volunteers. Volunteers are critical to RISE, and over the years have played a key part in what we do. When RISE first started, every woman involved was a volunteer and many were survivors - we grew from their care and dedication into what we are today.
As a Charity, we are a voluntary organisation. This doesn’t mean that everyone who works with RISE is a volunteer - we have highly qualified paid staff doing the day to day work. What this means is that the people who steer our organisation and are accountable for our work - Our Trustees - are volunteers.
Our Board of Trustees are an incredible group of women, with decades of experience supporting those in need, across a range of sectors and services behind them. Among other things, they work closely with our Survivor Panel to ensure that our Aims, and Values reflect what survivors want RISE to do.
Many of our staff start with us as volunteers, and go on to join us in paid work. Alice shared her story here of her journey with us, from Helpline Volunteer to Caseworker in our Communities Rising project which ended in October 2024. Alice said, "Connecting with people at a pivotal stage of their life is a real privilege, and their strength and stories will always stick with me.”
Over the last year, volunteers have listened on our Helpline (donating 120 hours of time in the last quarter alone), provided counselling, staffed our 8K run for women and helped at Drop-Ins as well as bringing expertise to our Board of Trustees. We estimate that our Trustees, between them, have donated 31.5 days of time in the last year.
