Written by Juliet W.
Disclaimer: this is a personal blog by a BuDS member. The views expressed are personal and don’t necessarily represent those of BuDS or our Trustees.
Our current Grants Fundraiser Juliet sadly left us earlier this summer. However, before she left, she wrote us an excellent blog post on her experience of working within BuDS.
If you would be interested in becoming a member of the BuDS team, we have positions currently available. Find out more by getting in touch.
When I found BuDS, I found myself in new and alienating circumstances. The world was changing, and I was afraid. It appeared that everybody had moved on from their fear of Covid and workplaces across the country were returning to ‘normal’. I wasn’t yet ready for normal; I had been shielding and still religiously anti-baccing my hands after touching every piece of mail. On my hunt for employment, I stumbled across an advertisement for a position within BuDS, working remotely as a Grants Fundraiser. I had applied for grants in previous roles so I had some experience, but what really drew my attention was the mention of having a disability being an advantage. What magic was this? A workplace actively searching for disabled people? Being a disabled person myself, it had always been something that I feared bringing up in interviews. I’d been asked all kinds of inappropriate and awkward questions in the past at interview about it and I always winced having to share my physical disability and draw attention to the fact that I may be ‘less employable’ than the able-bodied person who was next in line. I vividly remember anxiously awaiting a response to my application, hoping that I could join a team, that through further investigation on social media channels and their own website, seemed to open to their arms to any impairment and actively campaign for issues I’d been so frustrated by myself. Not only that, but they had the same fears around Covid that I did, they were still working remotely (and still are) to protect their staff members who are more clinically vulnerable.
Shortly I was offered an interview and was then delighted to be offered the position. From day one of reading through the different highly detailed policies and receiving their very own tailor-made safeguarding training, I knew that this position would be life changing. Working remotely with BuDS has been such a new experience. Usually where I’ve been previously clock-watched and pressured into maintaining attendance levels and 9-5 hours, BuDS understood where some days I can’t start until 3pm because my chronic fatigue won’t let me, or I need to change my hours to work around a hospital appointment. I have always been met with understanding and support, even when the matter has related to childcare or child sickness, often being told ‘family comes first’. Working for a charity that makes you feel welcome and supported, only strengthens your commitment to do your very best day-in and day-out. In my case, this meant finding as many grants as I could, attending Meet the Funder events to tailor our applicants in the hope this boosted our chance of success, networking with other local charities and fully engaging in our weekly grants meeting. Grants meetings were incredibly important, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t still laugh, or share our frustrations or upsets with each other. Being a team means not only supporting work life, but also being there to understand the ups and downs of personal lives.
I can’t begin to describe to you the excitement of receiving a grant award email, I’m happy to share that since joining BuDS the grants team have managed to raise £157,900 (some of which is for future years), all of which goes towards such worthwhile projects in Buckinghamshire and in some cases beyond. I was always so astounded at the amount of hard work and determination that goes on in all the projects that I spoke with to help me gain a better understanding of what they did, to enable a more detailed grant application. From employability projects, to making events more accessible, supporting lonely and isolated disabled people, creating a Fair4All Card and raising awareness of local accessibility issues, you name it and BuDS is doing it! And if they aren’t doing it yet, they’re thinking if anybody else is doing it that they can refer people to, or how they can do it.
Another thing that always amazed me is the sheer amount of work that those who volunteer within BuDS do, not in the sense that they are continuously working, but that the work they do is so valuable. The time that every volunteer gives up, striving for a more accessible Buckinghamshire is such a pleasure to see and I don’t think you will meet a group that has more fight in them than BuDS.
Working within BuDS has taught me to never settle when it comes to accessibility. To speak up and challenge those who aren’t as understanding as they should be, and to have a voice and know my legal rights. I know that although I’m leaving my paid employment with BuDS, I will still be keeping in touch, I’ll still be supporting their events and fundraisers and should I run into any access or employment issues, I know they will be there to offer advice and support. Although I needed to move on to other things, I’m still so grateful to BuDS for everything they’ve taught me, and my last day will certainly be a sad one.