We’re sharing stories about amazing volunteers giving their time in Milton Keynes. This spotlight is on Tariq Raja, who has been volunteering at Community Action: MK.
Tariq started supporting Community Action: MK in May 2016 and has been incredibly helpful since that time. Tariq’s main role has been in supporting the development of the type of support we offer to citizens in Milton Keynes, this has involved doing background research about social enterprises and other models, meeting other local organisations, getting to know people we have already supported locally and helping some of them to take their ideas further. Rebecca Brown, a member of our Community Engagement Team has said:
‘Tariq has really used his fresh pair of eyes and an outside perspective to advise and help us to improve our service.’
Tariq has also helped out with other activities such as community engagement, our website and communications, and he has been actively supporting some of the citizen projects funded and supported by the Our MK platform.
Tariq helping to deliver a Raspberry Pi session to students at the STEM Club at MK Academy as part of the Our MK – funded Community Computing project. Photo credit: Community Action: MK.
Tariq makes conscious effort to take himself out of his comfort zone in order to benefit the wider society. As a Muslim he has found that there is a large cultural divide between organisations such as ours and the people within his religious group. Therefore he is striving to bridge the gap. He is now starting to support Community Action: MK to reach out to minority groups by supporting the delivery of an equality workshops for those harder to reach ethnic groups and his insight is proving very valuable. Tariq hopes to understand where his skills fit into the Voluntary Sector and use this to support communities.
Tariq delivering leaflets and engaging with residents in Broughton Gate about the Water Monitor project as part of MK: Smart. Photo credit: Community Action: MK.
Our team at Community Action: MK absolutely enjoys working with Tariq and we thoroughly appreciate his volunteering support – thank you Tariq!
Interested in volunteering? Get involved in with lots of roles available via Community Action: MK. Search our bank of MK Volunteering roles now to find your place and explore the brand new Volunteering Platform for Milton Keynes – Volunteer Connect.