As part of Jellybean’s 12 Days Of Giving, I spent a day volunteering with Oxfam, supporting their Carshalton shop and lending my expertise to help them leverage social media in the run-up to Christmas.

Oxfam is a British founded charity, committed to ending global poverty and working and campaigning with over 90 countries worldwide. Their high street shops play a crucial role in raising funds for emergency response and development work all over the world. There are around 650 shops currently in the UK, run by more than 23,000 volunteers and each year, millions of pounds are raised through their efforts.

During my time instore, I was tasked with helping to decorate the shop for Christmas, going through the boxes of holiday bric-a-brac, well-loved decorations and festive (and suitably gaudy!) clothes to adorn the window displays and dress the mannequins. During such a busy time of year, it was all hands-on deck gift-aiding and going through the bags and boxes of donations being dropped off throughout the day. As well as helping on the shop floor, I was also asked to re-vamp the shop’s social media accounts to help maximise the store’s exposure and promote Oxfam’s #GreenChristmas campaign, which seeks to help vulnerable communities around the world affected by climate change with life-saving solar-powered water pumps to ensure access to clean water, all year round.

Having previously volunteered with Oxfam before, it’s been lovely to return and support the fantastic team in Carshalton (winners of Oxfam Shop Team of the Year 2018!). I’ll be carrying on my work with them throughout December over on their Instagram and Facebook page so be sure to follow all the action over there.

I would urge anyone with a couple of hours to spare to volunteer with your local charity shop. Whether you’re looking for a little break from your screens, fancy meeting new people or have a passion for unearthing second-hand gems, volunteering in a charity shop ticks all the boxes and the time I’ve spent with Oxfam has been so wonderful, that I couldn’t recommend it more.

To find out more about volunteering/supporting Oxfam, visit: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/