Making a difference in Dacorum

The Box Moor Trust aims to provide opportunities and access to green open space to everyone. With this in mind they organised three events for young refugees and asked Community Transport to provide the transport. We joined the first event in May which was a trip to the Box Moor Trust site supported by Herts Welcomes Refugees to find out how Community Transport makes a difference.

We met up with Rob Trowt, volunteer minibus driver for Community Action Dacorum as he arrived to pick the group of young people up. There was quite a buzz and you could sense the feeling of excitement amongst the group.

Volunteers, Alison and Sue from Herts Welcomes Refugees were on hand to support the group and made sure everyone had transport to the Box Moor Trust site. There were 20 young people interested in the planned session, so a convoy of cars and the minibus made the journey to the Old Barn.

Rob has been volunteering for Community Transport since November 2021. We asked him why he volunteers. “I volunteer because I want to give something back, after all the years of working and being busy when you retire it is nice to be able to give something back to the community. Throughout my career I’ve always done driving working within the car industry so this is something I can turn my hand to easily. You get great satisfaction from the older people getting off the bus, they always say thank you. On a regular basis I have been helping transport elderly people to a church service, they are over the moon with the service because they wouldn’t be able to get there otherwise. It’s rewarding to me to see how much it means to them.

I do like to interact with the people I am transporting, it makes them feel less intimidated and a nicer experience for them. When I take the school children to their sports fixtures, I always wish them luck and ask them what position they are playing in. Mind you, being slightly deaf helps with the volume in the back of the minibus after a match!

If you’ve got some spare time, I would encourage anyone to do something like this even if it’s just 1 day a week. Retired life can be a bit mundane once you’ve done all the jobs you’ve been putting off for years at home and it can become a case of what do I do now? Doing this can give you a purpose and an opportunity to give something back. Lots of people have lost a partner and are lonely so volunteering can fill a void”.

Making a difference

Community Action Dacorum provides minibus hire to not for profit organisations. Without the opportunity of low cost transport many people will be left isolated and lonely. The service relies on volunteers like Rob who want to give up a little bit of their time to help others. If you are interested in finding out more about our hire service or interested in volunteering as a driver please get in touch at [email protected] or 01442 212888.