Ahead of this year’s International Volunteer Day, we spoke with David Williams, who has been volunteering with St Mungo’s since 2023. Here is his story and what the experience has taught him.
I found out about St Mungo’s when the company I was working with selected it as “Charity of the Year”. We were a small team of around 20-30 people, but we managed to raise over £5,000. I’d also personally run an Ultramarathon during COVID for mental health charity Charlie Waller after losing two close friends. I’ve always wanted to do charity work one or two days a week.
I now usually do one or two shifts a month in central London, from around 8pm – 1am. Each outreach worker I’ve met has been so professional, and we have a list of people we’re looking to make contact with that night. I’m guided by the St Mungo’s outreach workers, and I really enjoy this volunteering as I get to connect with people.
When you’re volunteering, you see the humanity in everyone. There are people you might see a few times and you recognise the same faces. For example, there was a guy we’d often see who could be quite aggressive, but after 10 minutes of talking, that humanity appears again and you see a different side of them. In some people we meet on the streets you see levels of paranoia in them and not trusting people around them. They can be hesitant to tell us information about themselves. It’s one of those things where you have to be persistent to build up that trust.
I also see firsthand the difference the St Mungo’s team are making. Each outreach worker has different styles of working, but for all of them, the professionalism of the people here is genuinely life changing. They show courtesy and humanity to people they meet in huge amounts.
Volunteering has also opened my eyes to what the extent of homelessness is really like, especially in London. I didn’t realise what was going on at night – both on the streets and indoors. It’s such a vibrant city, you even see people getting a haircut at midnight!
It’s made me feel like I’m giving something back. At this stage in my life, you put so much into your family, career and everything and then you want to give back. I like interacting with people – it’s a nice thing to do.
Hopefully, I’ll encourage other people to do some volunteering like this, and it’s good that my kids who are teenagers now get to hear about me doing this.
Thank you David and thank you to all of our volunteers who selflessly volunteer to help us reach more people and offer them the support they need. Our volunteers come from various background and volunteer for us for different reasons but we are grateful to each and every one of them for offering us some of their precious time.
Are you interested in volunteering with St Mungo’s? Check out our Current Opportunities page or get in touch at volunteer@mungos.org.
No time to spare? You can still support our work by donating, or simply by referring people that you’ve seen sleeping rough to StreetLink, who will send an alert to our teams for those all important outreach shifts.
