Interviewer

Good morning. Could I start by asking your name?

Riki Bill

My name is Riki Bill.

Interviewer

And could I ask which organisation you are linked to?

Riki Bill

The Friends of Milliner House.

Interviewer

Thank you. And could I ask how old you are, Riki?

Riki Bill

I’m 40.

Interviewer

I really thought you were a lot younger than that.

Riki Bill

I have just had a birthday.

Interviewer

Oh, well, Happy Birthday.

Riki Bill

Thank you.

Interviewer

So tell me a bit about how volunteering has fitted into your life up to this point. Have you always volunteered? Is it a recent thing? How has it happened for you?

Riki Bill

I have always volunteered from the age of about 18. I’ve volunteered in a special needs school when I was 18, for a year, then I volunteered again in another special school when I was 16. Not going in chronological order, of course. I volunteered in Care Homes, especially in Milliner House, and I volunteered, when I started about two years ago in a school, a mainstream school. And I have just got an apprenticeship as of January the seventh of this year.

Interviewer

So lots of different volunteering.

Riki Bill

Definitely.

Interviewer

And why did you decide to volunteer? What took you into those different things?

Riki Bill

I think I wanted to give back to the community. A lot of what I do, because I have a degree in psychology, I studied psychology for three years, I decided that I wanted to go into care. I got a job in care for 10 years. Unfortunately, I lost that job, and had to sign on, and I didn’t want to have to, you know, sit on my laurels. I wanted to volunteer. So I decided to look at organisations that I could volunteer in, in Care Homes. And Friends of Milliner House came up, and I decided to volunteer there. I became a tea room assistant. I did that for about two years, then Covid hit. And then, I decided over the year, two years that Covid had hit, that I wanted a school job. So I found a school that would take me to volunteer, and I became a reading volunteer with Schoolreaders. Schoolreaders is another charity, reading charity, that focuses specifically on literacy in deprived areas. And Luton is a deprived area of the country. So I decided to volunteer in a school there. They placed me with a school and I was off and running. I did that four to five days a week as I did with Milliner House, the tea room situation. And that was it.

Interviewer

So it seems to me, listening to what you’ve said, that care was where you started your career and education is now where your career has developed to.

Riki Bill

Yes.

Interviewer

But volunteering has been part of both of those career avenues.

Riki Bill

Definitely.

Interviewer

It feels a bit, and you know, I’ve got to know you a bit over the years, but it’s as much an expression of who you are and what sort of the things you care about, rather than a job. Does that feel fair to you?

Riki Bill

Definitely. I care about the people, not the specific job. I want to help others. You know, I have skills due to my degree that mean that I’m caring, I’m patient, I can think out of the box, and inside the box, and I can link to other avenues as well.

Interviewer

And there’s a bit to me, certainly with the education stuff, that it was potentially about exploring if you fitted there, whether you had the skills, and all of that. Was volunteering potentially part of that for you?

Riki Bill

I knew that I wanted to change my career. I knew that I had been doing care for quite a long time, and I did want to explore another, different, avenue. A lot of what I do while I volunteer is I look for pockets of things that are missing in each of my volunteering endeavors. So, with the care, it was giving the extra time to the individual or to the group. With schoolwork, it is giving the group enough time to learn something new. And that’s what I care about. I have an area of interest, a specific area of interest, and I can expand on that.

Interviewer

Excellent. And that is one of the things that volunteering allows, isn’t it?

Riki Bill

Definitely.

Interviewer

To do a bit extra.

Riki Bill

Yes.

 

Interviewer

So, I’m going to go back a bit now, So for people who don’t know, what is a tea room in a care home like?

Riki Bill

A tea room in a care home is very, I would call it very bubbly. You don’t have a spare moment because you are going from person to person, talking, hearing life stories, collaborating with others, and also you are providing a service as well.

Interviewer

So do the volunteers bring in the cakes, or do the care home provide the cakes? Or how does that work?

Riki Bill

At Milliner house I brought in cakes. Which I would pay for and then get the money back for it, so it would be Attend that would be giving cakes. So it was always nice to see what the care home users liked. They could request what they wanted.

Interviewer

Okay.

Riki Bill

And I could facilitate that, and actually give it to them. There were times when we had the diabetic person who was like ‘’I want this cake’’. I would say, ‘’unfortunately, we can’t do that’’ because of this. And there’d be the occasion when, you know, the care home user would be very unhappy about that, and you would have to manage that. You couldn’t just say, ‘’well, I’m going to go and get someone, and they can deal with it’’. You have to deal with it. Because it is a request from them to you.

Interviewer

And did, did you ever find that difficult?

Riki Bill

No. Because I was patient enough to be able to manage that.

 

Interviewer

And if somebody’s listening who’s never been into a care home, people often think, ‘’oh, you’re going to end up doing personal care as part of it’’. Did anybody ever ask you to do personal care? How did that work?

Riki Bill

No, I never did any personal care. I was never asked to do any personal care. I knew the procedures. If somebody needed personal care, to be able to get someone that worked there to do that. I was never left on my own completely, so I was never in a situation where I needed to manage the personal care of one of the users.

Interviewer

Brilliant. That’s great to hear. And was there a trolley at Milliner? Did we have anything to do with that?

Riki Bill

We did have a trolley at Milliner House when I started. And I was told that it used to have toiletries on it, and when I was there it was sweets. So I would take round Maltesers and chocolate buttons, things like that. We did have a trolley, I hope it’s still there.

Interviewer

It’s not unfortunately. But, you know, there’s a time for everything in life. And there was a time for that. So do you have any favourite memories, either at Milliner or anywhere else, of the situation you’ve been involved in, in volunteering, which has felt really important to you?

Riki Bill

Oh, I think I’ve had little moments when the users have actually remembered me, remembered my name, remembered that I’m coming. There have been moments where they’ve not really wanted me there. But at the same time, that was at the start, when they didn’t really know who I was. I think the best moment I ever had was walking into Milliner House after Covid and finding that the users were waiting for me. They were like, ‘’We missed you’’, we didn’t know where you were’’. So it kind of totally passed them by that people weren’t coming in, but they were happy to see a familiar face.

Interviewer

That’s lovely. That’s really lovely. And it’s nice, I mean, they remembered you after quite a long period of time as well.

Riki Bill

Yes.

Interviewer

That’s great. Now, when you were aware that you were seeing us today, is there anything you wanted to tell us you haven’t had the chance to say?

Riki Bill

No, I think I’ve covered everything.

Interviewer

Thank you. Well, thank you ever so much.

Riki Bill

Thank you.