Leadership skills and determination grow volunteer numbers by 300%

Clare Alagh has been with Hestia for 10 years, starting as a Children and Family worker in one of the Domestic Abuse refuges. In this role she worked alongside volunteers providing activities and outings for families to make new positive memories.

She enjoyed working with volunteers so much that when the opportunity to join a small team of one administrator arose she decided to apply and challenged herself to grow the volunteering team. Since joining the team 6 years ago, Clare has been advocating the critical role volunteers play in Hestia and she strongly believes volunteers can have an incredible impact on their services by sharing their life experiences and views.

The team has since grown to 7 members which includes a Head of Volunteering, Volunteer Manager, 3 Coordinators, a Senior Administrator and an Administrator. This demonstrates how under Clare’s leadership the volunteering service has thrived and developed, and her lobbying across the senior teams in Hestia on behalf of volunteering has been extremely effective.

The number of volunteers supporting Hestia has also grown by almost 300% since Clare started, with nearly 200 volunteers in 2013, to nearly 600 in 2021. This is thanks to her leadership skills and determination to continue to grow over the coming years and constant advocating for the work we do amongst the directors and trustees. Her ability to be a positive influence on those around her and motivate others toward success whilst supporting them in a practical way is remarkable. So much so that the staff Clare has recruited have stayed in the team throughout her journey as she believes in developing individuals and creating opportunities.

Focusing on her staff’s needs as well as volunteers is equally important to her. Clare has led the team through difficult challenges such as the COVID pandemic, where alongside senior leaders she led and delivered an emergency COVID-19 volunteering programme including a food drop scheme for service users who could not access food and medical supplies. In two months 250 new volunteers were recruited for these roles and over 450 drops were made to service users.

Included in this emergency scheme was an army of telephone befrienders to remotely support service users during this difficult time. The remote support allowed Hestia’s profile to grow across the whole of the UK including the North of England, Scotland and Wales as a result of the success of our virtual roles.

Clare recognises the importance of ensuring volunteers felt connected and appreciated, especially as the team grew and as a result continues to facilitate monthly forums with over 120 in attendance. She also leads the Corporate Volunteering programme which since she joined has grown from 2 events facilitated yearly, to 70-100 events yearly.

“Clare puts volunteers and service users at the heart of decision making, and under her leadership volunteering at Hestia has grown. She is a constant champion for all that we do and is a truly inspirational leader.”

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