Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) will celebrate Volunteers’ Week on June 1-7 by highlighting its '50 Faces' campaign.
Throughout 2019, the campaign is telling the story of 50 volunteers, members and participants to mark the RDA’s 50th anniversary.
A recent report from the RDA found that volunteering doesn’t just benefit the participants but has a huge role to play in tackling loneliness and mental health, helping people gain more perspective and become less inward focused.
One such volunteer is Doug Smith, a member of the Stafford and District RDA Group. At the age of 45, Doug found himself out of work and at a low ebb after breaking his back in a riding accident. He was unemployable, uninsurable and did not not realise he was sinking into clinical depression.
It was suggested that he might like to go to the Atlanta Paralympics as a volunteer and, on his return, he threw himself into volunteering with the RDA which, by his own admission, transformed his life.
In 2000, he travelled to Australia where he was yard manager for the Paralympic team at the Sydney Olympics.
Doug said: “As an RDA volunteer we should be bloody proud of what we do. There are fabulous people in the RDA who do amazing jobs and we have to aspire to that.”
Every year, Volunteers’ Week provides a chance to celebrate the amazing contribution that is made by ordinary people who give up their valuable time to benefit others.
Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) is dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities through horse riding, carriage driving and hippotherapy. Through a network of around 500 volunteer groups throughout the UK, RDA provides opportunities for therapy, achievement and enjoyment, improving health, wellbeing and self-confidence, and benefiting mobility and co-ordination.
Each year more than 19,000 dedicated volunteers give a total of more than 3.5 million hours of their time to the charity.
To find out more, visit the RDA page on the ConnectSport directory. To add your organisation to the directory, contact hello@connectsport.co.uk.
