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At present we have two Lead Volunteers working alongside the participation and volunteering team creating exciting and beneficial opportunities for members of the public to support Brook’s work. Emma and Kirsty tell us more about themselves below.
To find out more about the role and when we will next be recruiting see here.
Name: Emma Bolton
Age: 22
What do other than being a Brook volunteer?
Besides volunteering with Brook I am a student at the University of Exeter, which involves 50% studying and 50% clinging on to student life.
Why did you want to become one of Brook's Participation and Volunteering Lead Volunteers?
I’m passionate about education but particularly the need to address the lack of comprehensive SRE in schools so I wanted to volunteer with Brook so I could be directly involved in some of those changes in making SRE accessible to all young people.
What do you want to get out of your role?
I want to create a more diverse range of volunteering opportunities so that everyone who is interested in supporting Brook can find something that suits them. It would be great to see more young people helping themselves and each other through volunteering and creating their own wider Brook community.
What are you most looking forward to in your role?
I’m looking forward to working closely with other young people and sharing ideas and concerns that we have so that we can build strong foundations for our volunteering roles. To be part of an ever changing and growing organisation is really exciting.
If you could invite five famous people to attend an education session on sex and relationships who would they be, and why?
Politicians, all of them, is that allowed?
Along with Laverne Cox and Gina Rodriguez because they are both amazingly powerful and could definitely teach us a thing or two about SRE.
What is your funniest memory of any SRE you have had?
I can’t think of one memory let alone a funny memory! My SRE was virtually non-existent but I do recall being horrified as my French teacher demonstrated how tampons work by dipping one into a glass of water and watching it expand and fill the glass.
Name: Kirsty Bates
Age: 23
What do other than being a Brook volunteer?
I work in the Fundraising team at Girlguiding’s HQ in London, and I’m also the founder of a local campaign ‘The Homeless Period Southampton’ – helping to distribute much-needed sanitary products to homeless and refugee women in my hometown.
Why did you want to become one of Brook's Participation and Volunteering Lead Volunteers?
I think Brook is a brilliant charity – not only for the services they provide, but also the ways in which they champion young people’s voices. I have been a volunteer for just over a year, and having just embarked on a career path in the charity sector – I figured it would be a great opportunity to progress from taking part in voluntary opportunities – to actually playing a role in creating them!
What do you want to get out of your role?
I am really excited to start working more closely with Brook’s staff, and also get the chance to meet future volunteers, fundraisers and avid SRE campaigners! I think that attitudes towards SRE are changing for the better – and changes in legislation are also starting to reflect this. Now more than ever I think that organisations like Brook need to ensure young people are at the forefront of their work – and it would be amazing if I could help shape this!
What are you most looking forward to in your role?
Definitely working with other young people to help get their voices heard, particularly when it comes to speaking out about what matters to them. I think it’s a really exciting time for social action and campaigning – there are so many tools available for people to use now – just look at the campaign to end #TamponTax! It’s great to think that Brook’s volunteers could also play a part in shaping the world of SRE so as it really meets the needs of young people today.
If you could invite five famous people to attend an education session on sex and relationships who would they be, and why?
Mel & Sue (even though I’m sure they only count as one person...) simply because their pun game would be SO strong throughout, and well, I miss them now they’re no longer on Bake Off.
Aisling Bea and Alan Carr – my two favourite comedians. I was lucky enough to see Aisling perform at a benefit gig for the London-Irish Abortion Support Network and fell in love with her, not to mention her and Alan Carr made a brilliant pair on ‘Child Genius vs. Celebrities’ for Stand Up to Cancer on Channel 4 last year!
Finally, Alice Levine, because she’s fantastically funny on the My Dad Wrote A Porno podcast.
What is your funniest memory of any SRE you have had?
I think books (thank you Confessions of Georgia Nicolson!) and magazines taught me more than anything I learnt at school! One memory I have in particular is of being no older than 12/13, sat in a dorm room at camp – a group of us gathered around a stray copy of Cosmo that had somehow made its way in. We were reading an article about oral sex, and none of us seemed to be able to decode what ‘swallowing’ meant. I swear we were up for most of the night, whispering theories – each more ludicrous than the last!
If you're interested in our participation or volunteering opportunities visit our volunteering section.
For more information on the role of Participation and Volunteering Lead Volunteer, including when we will next be advertising see here.
Sign up to our monthly newsletter to be informed of when this and other opportunities become avaliable. We will also update the website with this information so do keep an eye out here!
