Crisis at Christmas 2018

After two years of volunteering at Crisis at Christmas, this year I became a Shift Leader for the Service...


One of my amazing teams this year


What is shift leading?


The previous years I had volunteered with Crisis I spent my time seeing guests on the mobile vans, manning reception, (trying my best!) on decon, or going to other day centres  on triaging to bring guests back for treatment on our vans. 

This year as shift leader I did not personally see guests (although I recognised a fair few!) but instead I was in charge of co-ordinating the 3 shifts I leading on. This involved contacting volunteers to answer any queries they had, setting everything up for the day, assigning roles for volunteers, ensuring the smooth running of things throughout the day and clearing down at the end of the day. 

I was lucky to have some really supportive clinical dental supervisors on my shifts who looked after any clinical aspects of care for the guests (such as a particularly stubborn lower 6 that didn't want to budge for one patient) so I could focus on my duties and make sure all my volunteers were happy and supported. 



What did I learn?


Leading a team of up to 20 individuals can be tricky with varying experience and needs but I had fantastic teams all the days I lead who were eager to do their bit and work hard to ensure the service we providied to the homeless was first class. 

Something that I had to learn was when to delegate to others... I was so used to trying to do everything from clinical aspects to the running of reception, on the first day i was automatically doing too much. Quickly I realised I needed to use my team and a huge thank you to everyone who did their bit!!


On board one of the mobiles!

This year was a record year for the Crisis at Christmas Dental Service with 459 guests seen on the 4 mobiles over the week.

Many  thanks to all the volunteers, sponsors and donors which allowed the service to go ahead (especially CDS CIC, KCH and KCHFT who donated their vans), all the shift leaders and the organisers Nahush and Janine for all their hard work.

See you at Crisis 2019!


Did you volunteer your time for Crisis this year? What were your highlights? Let me know in the comments below. 





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