Volunteer Experience Reflection

This assignment is a reflection on the author's experience volunteering with Easy Care Gardening. It details the observed benefits of volunteering, including knowledge sharing and socialization opportunities. The reflection also highlights personal development through improved critical thinking, social skills, and teamwork. Specific examples of client interactions and ethical considerations are discussed, emphasizing the importance of understanding client needs.

Social innovation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
AUDIENCE.....................................................................................................................................1
PURPOSE........................................................................................................................................1
Alignment of practice of theory.......................................................................................................2
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................2
REFLECTION.................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Organization “Easy Care Gardening” was established in 1985 to provides support to older
age group and people with disabilities for maintaining their gardening and related activities. The
centre is a helping hand for those who seeks utmost pleasure in gardening activities. We act in
collaboration with different voluntary organizations as well and connect our services with
different standardized programs and plans. At present we are connected with local governing
agencies and clubs to accumulate our funds.
AUDIENCE
Our main audience or clients are people belongs to old age group and disable individuals.
We serve the household communities of different locations with a view to support them by the
help of various voluntary programs. Our corporate volunteering performs collaboratively for
deliver services like lawn mowing and related subsides. At present we are responsible to provide
our gardening services within a total of 800 households. We serve our best services to local
communities by developing a sense of independence within them on others. We tackle the people
with vulnerability by joining them into our group and train them with the best possible aids.
PURPOSE
Our purpose is to adhere with the needs of older community and to reflect their interests
into our services. The main purpose is to present utmost authentic gardening services to its
customers by the support of local and governmental bodies and agencies. It services and
management inhibits an aim to retain its key volunteers and to train them for continuous growth
in the quality of services (Ornelas and et.al., 2018). With the implementation of different
engagement plans for our clients, our basic purpose is to protect our volunteers. Our
organizations highly adhere with health and safety policies for each of our working volunteers.
Along with it, the problems faced by our client is manged and addressed by our efficient
team management. People specially who belong to older age group or people with any kind of
disabilities are unable to perform the activities related to their interests. People with high level of
interests in gardening are served by Easy Care Gardening centre. Based on the identified
problems faced by our old age community and disable individuals, I as a working member of
centre would ask to perform certain functions of management. I need to assess different interests
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of my clients related to horticulture. I am responsible to fulfil the fundamental needs related to
raw materials suppliers, logistics and various dealers.
My responsibility is to deliver each of its gardening services by proper alignment WHS policies.
I am responsible to cater the purpose of managing all the funds provided to us by different bodies
and assess various testing’s of material by the help of supporting team.
Alignment of practice of theory
John's model of Reflection
Reflection: As a volunteer I have been providing services to older people who are living in their
own home (John’s model of reflection. 2018). However, their loneliness and age related factors
always influence my actions. Whenever I meet with my clients, I feel very excited because their
experience and positivity towards life always encourages me that I should live my life positively.
Influencing factors: I always try to accomplish my tasks with efficiency but dealing with people
who are suffering from depression and are not as physically fit as young generation always
influence my quality of work. Many times, I get emotional and my focus is on interacting with
them so that I can learn about their struggle and their current life style.
Scope for improvement: I believe that I can improve my efficiency by getting more emotional.
On many occasions I become too much attached with my clients and this affects the time and
quality aspects of my work.
Learnings: My work has taught me a lot of professional details, however by interacting with old
people I have learnt that gardening is not merely a profession but it can be a tool for people to
visualise world from perspective of happiness and joy. Some experienced clients also share their
feelings and knowledge with me and it helped me to enhance my communication skills and
professional learnings.
Experience description: My experience has been wonderful with this particular community
because apart from the professional guidance also help them to overcome their loneliness. Their
valuable sharing guide me to solve various problems in my life from the learnings of their
knowledge.
RECOMMENDATIONS
There are several recommendations which should be followed by Easy care gardening.
they are as follows:-
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 First of all, a proper plan should be developed as per area wise. It will benefit in working
in systematic way by following that plan. through this, a detailed schedule can be easily
prepared where all activities are mentioned. Also, resources will be allocated it
accordingly resulting in its effective utilisation.
 The feedback of clients should be taken so that volunteer behaviour and performance can
be evaluated. it will be easy to compare their results with set standards. therefore,
changes can be made in goals of volunteer.
 The organisation should start providing organising campaigns for community
engagement. Through this, needs of clients can be identified in advance. Moreover, the
change in gardening trends can be identified.
 There should be proper training provided to volunteers. It would allow them to use
different tools and techniques in gardening. this will enable in improving quality of work
by identifying weak areas.
 An application or software can be developed to provide a platform for effective
communication between clients and volunteers. this will help in instant transfer of data
and information and fulfilling client’s needs.
 There must be a back up of driver or volunteer in case of any critical situation. it will be
beneficial in reaching a client place in less time.
REFLECTION
While working in Easy care gardening I observed that working as volunteer helps in
gaining and sharing of knowledge with each other. the main benefit of working as a volunteer is
to socialise with people. it helps in meeting people of different cast, creed, etc. Also, I noticed
that basically old age people need are similar. By working in organisation, I was able to develop
critical thinking skills as I analysed many decisions and then selected the best one. Also, I was
able to improve my social skills that how to communicate and engage with old age people. in this
I interacted with people of different background and noticed their ethics and values they follow
in homes. Another skill that I learned was how to work in team. It was easy for me to work in
team as I helped others in guiding. Also, we worked collaboratively to attain goals and
objectives. I also improved my communication skills. I am now able to interact with people more
openly and easily. I realised that my attitude towards clients was very good. I behaved and
respected old people with whom I met. Also, I analysed each people behave differently with
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other. I learned and gained knowledge and skills related to improving gardening services. Also, I
was able to analyse needs of old age people and what ethics they follow. besides this, I feel that
it is very important to identify needs of clients especially old age people by communicating with
them. This is because these people do not express their views openly to others. thus, it helps in
fulfilling their needs in effective way.
Conclusion
From this it can be said that my experience of working in Easy care gardening was very
good. Here, I learned that how old age people lives their life and what problems they face. Also,
through this I realized that how responsibility is been initiated and followed. Moreover, I gained
experience of working with diversified people. This changed my perception regarding
professional life. Now, I am able to work in
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ornelas, I. J. and et.al., 2018. Gardening for Health: Patterns of Gardening and Fruit and
Vegetable Consumption Among the Navajo. Journal of community health. pp.1-8.
Online
John’s model of reflection. 2018. [Online] Available through : <
https://latrobe.libguides.com/reflectivepractice/models>
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