Wrap Up London

Every morning last week I set my alarm for 5.30am and arrived at Waterloo station two hours earlier than usual to volunteer for Wrap Up London. Why? We were asking fellow commuters to give us their coats. Not literally the clothes off their backs - although a few generous and impulsive souls did just that - but old coats, unwanted ones, long forgotten winter warmers, tucked away in the backs of wardrobes or buried beneath layers of new fashion.

We spent two days telling people the plan: you donate unwanted coats on the way to work, we pass them on to London's most vulnerable so that they can keep warm this winter. It's an easy ask. All you have to do is spend five mins rummaging when you get home, then the next day carry your toasty treasure halfway to work. If you forget on Wednesday, you've still got two more days to remember. Many people got involved, often bringing bags full of ski-jackets, parkers and overcoats which they'd collected from house-mates and family members.

It's a great system. The ask and action are both simple and tangible, while the small lift of feel-good achievement experienced by donors is quite palpable. The whole transaction feels like a kind of magic. You can spot the givers in the crowd.  They're often carrying an extra bag or just moving towards you with purpose. You meet their eye and smile as the bundle is trust toward you. There's often a look, either a smile of happy benevolence or a quizzical 'is that it?'. This is the point at which I think it's my responsibility as a volunteer to convey gratitude on behalf of those who will be unable to do so themselves.

In a way it's all quite detached, because none of us meet the people who benefit at the end of the chain, but as the cold, wet weather sets in it's good to know that there are over 10,000 coats now ready to be redistributed to London's most vulnerable in shelters and refuges across the capital next month. This is all thanks to Hands on London, the organisation which manages the 100+ volunteers for Wrap Up London each year. It's a great way to volunteer because it's rewarding, it's flexible and you don't need any qualifications.

When I speak to people about volunteering, many don't know where to start. Others cite lack of time or a need to prove experience as barriers (unpaid volunteers should never require a qualification). Talking to volunteer managers, the biggest problems are often retention, finding the right people for the role and reaching new groups.

I joined Wrap Up London last year after a colleague told me about his experience. Since then I've been volunteering one evening every other week with my local Mencap. Hopefully some of the thousands of people who donated coats last week might now be inspired to look up Hands On London and give it a go.

handsonlondon.org.uk