Redundancy’s Impact on the Volunteer Engagement Sector

“We had to be gone by 12 noon.” In this poignant, first-person Voices, Claire Haggarty describes what it was  like to be a volunteer manager who was forced to evolve during a pandemic. She recalls the touchstones of a year that included a fantastic professional start before the UK went into a national lockdown in March 2020; briefly working from home before being furloughed; crying with sadness each time the news of a volunteer’s death reached her; receiving a notice of redundancy in August; and the joys of returning to grass-roots volunteering and anticipating the future. “I believe in volunteering and I believe in people,” Haggarty writes in this personal reflection that is sure to touch the hearts and minds of all who read her story.