Hi, I’m Sierra and I work at Coonara Community House. I’m 27 years old but my volunteering journey started when I was 11. I joined a group here at Coonara and it was called Girls Together and it was aimed for young girls between 11 to 16 to show them how to gain self confidence so joining that group and being par of that committee at 11 years old was my first volunteering experience. It gave me a lot of empowerment, especially being 11 it’s not like I could go and have a job. It made me feel mature, connected to the community and I felt important really. So it was from Girls Together that I started seeking out other volunteering opportunities with my local community both at my local Neighbourhood House there’s sometimes some council opportunities for volunteering and that’s what stepped me into my volunteering journey.
So I did grow up with anxiety in my life as a lot of us do especially going into teenage hood so volunteering helped me as an anxious person in terms of that I had commitments I was able to however be flexible on my terms and all of this experience that I was slowly getting helped me gain my own confidence with my own anxiety and it was great for my resume and I do have to say that it was through this volunteering that has gotten me a job and continues to get me jobs throughout my life.
So with my own volunteering journey I have been quite loyal to one place. That can be good in terms of gaining confidence but its not the only way to go about it, you can volunteer at many different places at one time or you can stick to the one place and get your confidence that way. So even though I get paid work now I also still volunteer on the side as a little bit of a thank you and it’s still great on my resume.
