Oral history interview with Fran Wright from SNAP Cymru, Cardiff, 19 January 2017

Description

Interview with Fran Wright recorded on 19 January 2017 at the SNAP Cymru Head Office in Cardiff. Fran gives an inspiring interview about how volunteering has helped her see the world from a different point of view, give people more time, and help people in her own way.

SNAP Cymru is a Welsh Charity that provides independent information, advice, and support for parents, children, and young people who have additional learning needs. Their advice is provided through a helpline, website, and specialist casework service. SNAP Cymru, which began as the Special Needs Advisory Project, has been in existence since 1986 when the Scope and Mencap charities set up an independent Parent Partnership service in South Wales.

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The Chronicle Project is a community heritage project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and run by VCS Cymru with the aims to document the history of volunteering in Cardiff, from 1914 to 2014.
Visit our website at: http://chronicle.vcscymru.org.uk/
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/vcs_chronicle

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FW = Fran Wright, LT = Lara Taffer (interviewer)

[Introduction]

LT: Fran, would you start off by introducing yourself.

FW: My name’s Fran, I live in Penarth, near Cardiff, and I have lived in Cardiff since 1999. I previously lived in Watford.


LT: So you’re a volunteer with SNAP?

FW: I’m a Family and Young Persons Officer, but I was originally a volunteer when I first started here.


LT: And when was that?

FW: Back in May this year … last year actually, so only just recently.


LT: What got you going with volunteering with SNAP?

[Motivations for volunteering with SNAP - 1:00 to 1:28]

FW: I’d done voluntary work in other areas as well, and I still do actually do some volunteer work, but I had been looking for a career change and I had actually applied for a post and was unsuccessful, but the organisation interested me so much, and working for them, that I decided to come and do some voluntary work, and then a position actually opened up and I applied for the post and got it.


LT: When you were volunteering, what kind of roles and responsibilities did you fulfil?

[Responsibilities and roles - 1:33 to 2:09]

FW: Here, an awful lot of the things that I do now in my post – administrative duties, also attending meetings with parents, and also sort of updating the database, and keeping on top of you know anything that needed doing in the office really. And also, lots of sorts of things for the Family and Young Persons Officers that were working here – just take a bit of pressure off their case-loads, so for example, making telephone calls on their behalf and chasing information, sending information out to parents.


LT: What other groups have you been a volunteer with in Cardiff?

[Other volunteering experiences - 2:17 to 2:49]

FW: I’m a school governor, so that’s a voluntary role, and have been for about five years now. I also worked for an organisation called Face To Face, which is part of Scope, and that was supporting parents independently, as a befriender, of children who had been diagnosed with a disability. That was also a voluntary role as well.


LT: What motivated you to start volunteering, either with SNAP or other organisations?

[More volunteer motivations - 2:56 to 3:44]

FW: I think really, just I enjoy meeting people and I have quite a particular interest in the area of special educational needs and also children with disabilities. I’m the parent of a child with a disability myself so once I’d been through the initial difficulties I felt I had quite a lot to offer back to parents in terms of empathy and understanding of what needs … how they were feeling when initially faced with a new diagnosis. And very much an understanding in this role here, my volunteer role here as to how I could support parents because I had an empathy and understanding of what they’d been through, having been through it previously myself.


LT: Do you think your volunteer work has changed you as a person?

[How volunteering affects you personally - 3:48 to 4:49]

FW: I think I make a lot more time for people day to day, so if I’m out and about and perhaps I might run into somebody I generally give them a lot more of my time. I would never kind of open the door and say “Oh, not today.”, or if I’m approached by someone who is working for a charity or is handing out information or trying to stop you to get your time, I would never just dismiss them – I will always stop, respond briefly, and if I haven’t got time be polite. I think I maybe wasn’t quite so tolerant, well years ago now, I maybe wasn’t quite as good as being tolerant of people who were doing that kind of work. It can sometimes be difficult can’t it when people approach you on the street, and you’re busy and doing things, so I very much feel that I always give people space and time now.


LT: Do you think volunteering helped you get to know the community of Cardiff better?

[Volunteering the Cardiff community - 4:54 to 5:38]

FW: Definitely in this role, very much so. You’re working and meeting people all the time, with lots of different organisations and agencies, as well as parents and families, so generally across the board. Certainly in my last volunteer role with Scope, I was working as a befriender, a volunteer befriender, and I was actually able to keep … there was not a requirement for me to cut the friendship off, so once the befriending period had finished I was able to remain friends with that person on a more personal level, with their agreement. So that was quite a nice way of developing.


LT: Could you tell me a little more about Scope and what kind of organisation it was?

[Volunteering with Scope - 5:43 to 6:15]

FW: Scope is a charity that supports people with disabilities – the primary area is for those people who have cerebral palsy, although I know they’ve widened their remit since. My own child has cerebral palsy which is what attracted me to them initially. They’re a UK wide organisation, but they’re active very much here in Wales.


LT: Have you encountered any frustrations or disappointments during your volunteer work?

[Frustrations and disappointments during volunteering - 6:23 to 6:49]

FW: Actually I think the only frustration is wanting to give more time but not being able to. I really enjoyed my volunteer roles, but sometimes I’ve obviously had to go and earn money as well. So actually having the time to give is really lovely, but wanting to actually spend a bit more time on something but simply not having the ability to do it is frustrating. But generally, no.


LT: Do you think, thinking large scale, could you provide a definition of volunteering and what it means to you?

[Defining volunteering - 7:06 to 8:02]

FW: I think for me, volunteering feels a bit like you’re giving something back. It’s quite a personal thing in the role if you volunteer for something, because I think people volunteer for things that are close to them in some way. For me volunteering has always been linked to education, to disabilities, to special education needs – which are very close to me. I’m quite an open person so I like to share experiences and I’m quite able to. So for me I think it’s the satisfaction that I can reassure people and make them feel positive about the experiences they’re going through and look to … there are positives and moving forward. So that’s very much … I’ve always been a very … volunteering, I’ve always wanted to be working with people and that kind of thing.


LT: Do you think you’ve ever inspired anybody to become a volunteer themselves?

[Volunteering inspirations - 8:10 to 8:29]

FW: I think my daughter is starting to talk about things like volunteering. She’s aware that I do, and have done, voluntary roles in the past, so she’s sort of talked about, “Oh, I’d quite like to do this.”, and things, so possibly within my own family, yes.


LT: Would you be able to offer any advice or words of inspiration to somebody who might want to volunteer, but perhaps is apprehensive about it?

[Words of advice or inspiring others to volunteer - 8:39 to 9:30]

FW: I think you just have to go for it don’t you? Look at what volunteer roles interest you. There are agencies now you can contact to look through all sorts of volunteering roles aren’t there. I think there’s the Welsh Council For Voluntary Services, and things like that so … they run open days, so go and see what there is and if there’s anything that interests you really. I think it give you valuable skills that you can use. Certainly for me I moved here and gained really valuable skills that made it possible for me to transition into this role, whereas previously I wouldn’t have been able to have got a job in this area because I didn’t have certain skills that were required, but I built on those during volunteering and they gave me another dimension to my cv which I hadn’t got, so it was good for me.


LT: What do you think volunteering adds to and organisation like SNAP or organisations in general?

[What volunteering adds to the community - 9:36 to 10:19]

FW: Oh it’s everything, the volunteers are absolutely everything here because without volunteers we would really struggle to run as an organisation: they’re really crucial, they are immensely helpful in just day to day support for us in our caseloads and the work that we do. And it’s just really nice to have different people in and out of the office, and they bring different skills and experiences to the role, which we really value actually, and they can often be a source of information. So as volunteers they really are quite crucial in an organisation like this.


LT: And do you think that volunteering can something to society or communities – not just organisations on a small scale, but on a larger scale?

FW: Definitely – I think that today we’ve changed so much as a society and everyone lives their life very much … I think people are much more insular now and live their life on line and things like that. I think it brings communities together and makes people talk to each other, and builds on that sense of community. I think that’s really important.


LT: Is there anything you’d like to add that we haven’t spoken about?

[Summing up]

FW: No, that’s fine now.


LT: Good, thank you for your time.

FW: That’s ok.

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