Volunteering Week 2023 – Treveylan Gives Back to the Community

Volunteering is helping Matthew give back to the community, as well as improve his physical health and well-being.

Matthew has been supported at Trevelyan, a residential specialist care service which is part of Accomplish, for 12 years. He requires support in some aspects of daily life as a result of his mental health difficulties but is very independent, living in the home’s step-down flat.

He enjoys being active and is a regular and dedicated volunteers both working in a local charity shop, but also supporting a local animal charity where he takes an enthusiastic role in looking after – and importantly walking – the shelter’s dogs.

The staff team at Trevelyan previously struggled to motivate Matthew to ‘get out and about’, particularly after COVID-19 and the restrictions it brought.

However, knowing that he has his volunteering roles to undertake, and that people (and dogs!) are relying on him, has been very motivational and he is eager to get up and out.

As well as motivational improvement, Matthew’s physical health has also improved as a result of his volunteering. Matthew is diabetic and the exercise he gets while walking the dogs has proved to be very beneficial. He has lost weight and says he feels better – leading him to make healthy choices in other areas of his life and for those positive physical changes to continue.

As well as walking the dogs, he chooses to add walks to his daily planner, to make sure he gets regular exercise. He regularly feeds back to the staff team just how much better he feels and celebrates his weight-loss successes.

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