On Sunday 15^th January, some of the Jewish Women’s Aid team and volunteers attended the Jewish Volunteering Network Celebration of Volunteering Awards 2022. This was in honour of Leonie Lewis MBE z’l at The Grove Hotel, Watford. The awards celebrated charity volunteers, including those who work tirelessly year-round for Jewish Women’s Aid.  

 

Our Volunteer Coordinator, Judy Roth, nominated volunteers in each category. Our nominees were Edward Miller (Volunteer of the Year), Talia Pavell (Young Volunteer of the Year), Bea Glass (Lifetime Achievement Award) and the volunteer counselling team (Team of the Year). Thank you to all our nominees!

 

Edward Miller is a Mckenzie Friend volunteer, supporting our clients in court, helping them to prepare their witness statements and other documents. This is a vital service, helping Jewish women at a very difficult time in their lives and Edward approaches this with kindness and sensitivity. He has a calm manner and works closely with support workers to provide copious notes, so our clients don’t have to relive the hearings. Edward has undergone abuse training and is an asset to our team!

 

Talia Pavell is an enthusiastic, creative and dedicated Young Adult volunteer. She has been a champion in raising awareness on accessing support and help in unique ways - through creating a recipe book for Jewish students, as well as fundraising for us. Talia also created a panel event for International Women’s Day with UJS, discussing issues Jewish women face in their chosen fields.

 

Bea Glass was nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award, having volunteered for us for seventeen years. Bea is based in Leeds and has been instrumental in keeping the local volunteers inspired and motivated as a group. Bea has put on many awareness events over the years about the support available to Jewish women, through panel events and speakers.   She organised a theatre production to raise money for us too.  Bea is a role model for volunteering long-term and with passion.

 

Our counselling team volunteers have been with us for many years, up to 20 years in some cases! Volunteer counsellors work alongside our staff, they are fully qualified and commit to seeing several clients a week plus hours of supervision and training for professional development. They deal with distressed clients suffering from trauma related to domestic abuse, listening to difficult stories. The feedback we receive on the counselling team is heart-warming and clients are often able to move forward with their lives.  

Judy Roth said, ‘We are so thankful to our outstanding volunteers. Jewish Women’s Aid would not be the same without their important input in helping Jewish women and children going through domestic abuse and sexual violence’.  

 

Daniel Levy, chair of JVN said,  ‘At JVN we strive to make the world a better place through volunteering. By the same token we hope tonight will inspire you. Thank you for doing what you do, we are very privileged to be hosting such a spectacular group of people.   

 

Nicky Goldman, CEO of JVN, commented, ‘Everyone in the room tonight is here because volunteering has touched our lives…inspired by someone close to us.’