Life at WCK: Jill’s first three months
Jill shares her reflections on what it’s been like to join the
WCK team and bring a brand new role to life.
Welcome to my diary!
When Hannah first asked me to do this diary-based blog post, I had a lot of questions. I followed this with a lot of overthinking. She had asked me to document a “week in the life” of my role at WCK. I was anxious to capture a true week, but every week has been so different. Each one has brought new learning, support, experiences, challenges, and growth.
So, in true me fashion, I changed the assignment! Instead, I'll take you on a journey of my first three months as Program Administrator and Volunteer Coordinator. I hope it gives you an interesting insight into life at WCK!
Coming in with curiosity
Starting a new job always brings a lot of emotions. With this new role, anticipation, excitement, and curiosity were the three I felt the most. When I started, I already had a connection to the work because I had previously worked at Ronald McDonald House. However, in the best way possible, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I was in for a surprise!
Taking up with the team
In my first three months with WCK, I have felt myself opening up in new ways. I’m enjoying the transparency and fun that we bring to each new thing we try to accomplish. I’m growing to love our small team that gets things done but takes time to check in with each other.
In the beginning, I knew I had lots to learn. Luckily, everyone was willing to take the time to meet and work with me. I was particularly excited that this position was brand new to WCK. It has allowed space for me to figure out exactly what it looks like.
Vibing with the volunteers
The biggest part of this job is taking on volunteer coordination. This has meant that Kels can focus more on our growing connection programs for kids and families. I jumped into this with some uncertainty, but was warmly welcomed by our community of volunteers. A community that wholeheartedly believes in WCK’s mission and expects absolutely nothing in return.
The WCK volunteers are some of the most reliable, kind, humble, and hardworking people I have ever met. This spans from our Board members – who are actively involved – to our food team that comes and sorts, packs, and delivers food every week, to the connections volunteers who consistently make Hangouts fun, and so many more.
Throughout volunteer week in April, I called and emailed most of our volunteers. I got to thank them personally for their dedication to WCK, which felt special. I'm so excited to get creative and come up with more ways to involve our volunteers in supporting families.
Relationship building on retreat
From May 5-7, I helped with the She Can in-person retreat alongside Simran Sarai, our She Can Program Assistant. The program is for female and non-binary identifying individuals who are living with or beyond a cancer diagnosis and their siblings.
Being part of this and getting to know the participants was the highlight of my whole month. They were all so unique and creative. I feel thankful that they decided to come. They allowed themselves to open up in the space and share the weekend with us.
I feel like we learned a lot of valuable lessons from our first ever She Can retreat that we can take with us into future years. I’m very thankful for the participants, volunteers, ShEvalesco team, and staff that did it with me. It was a great weekend of workshops, swimming, trail walking, nourishing food, campfires, and so many laughs echoing across Camp Capilano!
Gearing up for growth
While every week in this role has looked different so far as I continue to learn, I’m excited to see how I will grow as we continue to define my role.
I have a feeling that I will never stop learning. I can’t wait to invest in the admin portion of my role and get WCK really organized! Then I’m looking forward to finding new ways to get all of our incredible volunteers even more involved.
What a dream job!
Find out more about our wonderful WCK volunteers
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