A Footprints Project volunteer has been recognised for his work in the community by the High Sheriff of Hampshire. Tim Ward, who has been volunteering with the Footprints Project since 2016, will receive his Community Award at a special ceremony in March.
Tim was nominated for the award by Footprints CEO Caroline Stevens and didn’t know about the award until he received the news last month. He said: ‘This is very much a surprise! Everyone at Footprints works so hard. I receive this award on behalf of all Footprints volunteers.’
Tim, a retired GP, recalled how he came to be involved with the Footprints Project: ‘After I retired I felt I still had something to give and I wanted a challenge, so I searched for volunteering opportunities and found the Footprints Project online.’
Tim said he received excellent training from The Footprints Project, including sessions with the Citizen’s Advice Bureau on everything to do with the benefits system, housing, and other issues that affect the people he works with. He said on his first ‘real’ volunteering experience he went to meet a man on the day he was being released from HMP Winchester: ‘It was quite an eye-opening experience. Winchester is an imposing Victorian prison with big gates, every bit as unwelcoming as you’d imagine it to be, and I had to wait for him for quite some time. You see the vans arriving full of people and others leaving to go to court.’ Tim said when the man eventually arrived he was able to accompany him to Southampton and help him find accommodation in a hostel, giving him a positive start he might not otherwise have had.
Tim now regularly works with prison leavers, helping them to organise housing and other basics when they are first released. With two other volunteers, he co-runs a weekly drop-in clinic at approved premises in Havant, where prison leavers can come in and discuss any problems or issues they might have.
He said: ‘I give them my time and put them first. Many of the people coming through the prison system have never been put first, either by their families or by society. Putting them first helps to build their self-belief. It is a huge privilege to be able to help the people that we do and to be involved in their lives.’
Congratulations Tim!
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