A Perfect Match

This week SATEDA were awarded “Community Organisation of the Year” at the Canterbury Christ Church University annual Business Awards. We are thrilled to be recognised by such a community-minded academic establishment. The award was made all the more fabulous because we were nominated by Emily Lau, a lecturer at the University who is so passionate about her students’ experiences of university – she totally “gets” SATEDA’s ethos of helping everyone to fulfil their potential – and does the same through her work.

At the awards evening, we heard about a whole range of opportunities for students outside of the University – provided by businesses of all shapes and sizes, and facilitated by the University. We were blown away by the commitment of the University to provide experiences for their students, which took them outside of the normal academic day-to-day and gave them opportunities to fulfil their potential. The main aim of the University seemed to be to help their students grow and find their place in the world – and this really resonated with me, as SATEDA’s aim is the same.

SATEDA’s Employability Programme, which is funded by the National Lottery Community Lottery and was recently extended for a further five years throughout Swale and Medway, offers survivors of domestic abuse the opportunity to develop their skills and gain experience of working within the various projects we deliver, with the aim of growing confidence and practical employability skills. We are now beginning to develop an expansion of this project, which will enable us to match placements for our volunteers with external organisations – these relationships will be fostered depending on the volunteer’s aspirations and the organisation’s requirements. We believe that these relationships will benefit everyone involved – but will particularly give the volunteers more opportunities to find their own individual spark and fulfil their potential.

The event at Canterbury Christ Church whet our appetite for what is achievable and we are very excited to be able to continue to work with such like-minded individuals, from such a progressive and community-minded academic institute. We would particularly like to thank Lucy Woodward, Employment and Enterprise Manager, for linking in with us the first place – and coordinating the relationship between our volunteer team and Christ Church students. The relationships is a perfect match!

If you would be interested in volunteering with SATEDA – whether or not you have been directly affected by domestic abuse please contact Mary at volunteering@sateda.org or call 01795 417251.

If you would be interested in utilising volunteers in your organisation and would like to speak to us about how we can help you to do this please contact Matt at  volunteering@sateda.org or call 07943 781617