Progress on stretching my wings - becoming an Oxfam Representative

photos courtesy of Oxfam Winchester

So far in my blog I have written quite a bit about decluttering, not buying stuff, and raising the Puppy, but I haven't written so much about my attempts to get out and involved in new things to challenge myself further. 

For almost eight years now I have been volunteering at my local Oxfam shop - something that I absolutely love doing. I started when my youngest went to school, one morning a week I trotted off to Oxfam to help sort and price women's clothing, steam then and put them on sale. I've always liked clothes and shops, and I loved the fact that for a morning I could focus on something that wasn't connected to children, home or school. This was for me - to do something worthwhile that was fun and social too.

One of the best things was that when I left my manager Vicki always said 'Thanks Sarah, for what you did this morning!'. Generally small children and husbands don't go around saying "Thanks, Mum!" every time you cook tea, or pick up soggy socks from where they've been scattered, so it was lovely to have someone say 'Thankyou!' once a week, it made me feel appreciated, and I really learnt the value of a timely 'Thankyou!'.

Sale in the Menswear Dept

Since them my love affair with Oxfam and our local shop has grown. A couple of years ago stepped up temporarily to work as Deputy Manager for three months, which was a challenge and was good for my confidence. I enjoyed the role, but working Saturdays meant I had less time with the family at the weekend, so I didn't apply for the permanent job, but went back to being a happy volunteer.  Currently, I look after the Menswear section. Being in charge of a particular section means that I can experiment with pricing, what we put out and how things are displayed. Each week I can see how we are doing in sales in that area, so I get feedback on what I've done and how effective it's been.

The great thing about Oxfam for me, is that it's always given me a window out from my family-centered life on to a wider world. Everything we do at Oxfam is driven from a belief that inequality isn't right and that we can all help to build a better world. Sitting at home typing this blog in a lovely (although rather untidy) house, and surrounded by my lovely (but imperfect) family, I just feel how lucky we are to take so much for granted: Food, water, sanitation, education, shelter and freedom from conflict. All of these things we take for granted, but some of the poorest people in the world lack some or all of these. 

So, my desire to do something about this coupled with the belief that Oxfam is a great organisation means that when you start to look, new opportunities develop. Last autumn I became aware that Oxfam was looking for new members for its Volunteer Working Group and I applied. The group meets two or three times a year, and gives the senior management in the trading department a chance to bounce ideas off, and get feedback from, a group of volunteers who work in Oxfam's shops.  Which is how I found myself last autumn on a train to Birmingham to spend the day sitting around discussing all things Oxfam - marvellous! And then that led to the next thing, which was I discovered that Oxfam were creating a new role called OxReps - speakers who were happy to go out to community groups and schools to talk about Oxfam's work and the issues we are trying to address.

So in January, I was trotting off again - this time to London for weekend training on how to become an Oxfam Speaker. It was a great weekend and I met a great variety of volunteers, including one who had volunteered as a steward at Festivals for about ten years. I hadn't expected to be sitting eating lunch whilst discussing why Ketamine was the drug of choice at Boomtown festival, but that's the joy of getting out of your comfort zone and meeting new people - you never know what you might end up talking about.

So all this training was great, but I'm now coming up to having to sing for my supper as the saying goes. Next week I'm practising one of my presentations at our Shop's meeting and so I've been swotting up on all things Oxfam and practising delivering the presentation to my cat who sleeps on the end of my bed all day. I'm feeling quite nervous, and the cat hasn't been looking very impressed which hasn't helped.

And then comes the real challenge - getting out into the community and trying to get opportunities to do talks and workshops to spread the word. I'm standing on the edge of the nest, and although I'm sure flying will be fun, it all looks a bit scary from up here...