\n<\/p>\n
Thank you for continuing to highlight the concerns about the Samaritans charity (Samaritans to push on with branch closures despite volunteers\u2019 objections, 1 October).<\/p>\n
I am a volunteer in the north-east of England and I and many of our volunteers have felt very unhappy about the proposed changes. It is really rewarding being a Samaritan, but can also be very challenging. Volunteers need a high degree of motivation, and this has inevitably been affected by the proposals.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, in 2021 our chair, Keith Leslie, published A Question of Leadership, which is about leading organisational change. According to the Amazon description of this publication \u201c60%\u00a0to 70% of change initiatives fail\u201d, caused by the leader\u2019s \u201cinability to fully consider the consequences and magnitude of the situation\u201d. Also it states that change initiatives often overlook the mental health of those involved. I haven\u2019t read this book, but I really can\u2019t understand how its author could consider continuing as our chair when the leadership has run roughshod over the charity\u2019s very core: the volunteers. I believe that our CEO, Julie Bentley, should also consider her position.<\/p>\n
I am sure that most volunteers realise that change is inevitable and important. The drastic measures initially proposed do not take into account the dedication, loyalty and \u00a0hard work that it takes to keep us all going. We still have no details of the new proposals, but a kinder and more inclusive approach would\u00a0be greatly appreciated. Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong>email<\/em><\/strong> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong>letters<\/em><\/strong> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thank you for continuing to highlight the concerns about the Samaritans charity (Samaritans to push on with branch closures despite volunteers\u2019 objections, 1 October). I am a volunteer in the north-east of England and I and many of our volunteers have felt very unhappy about the proposed changes. It is really rewarding being a Samaritan,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[983,2378,487,6632],"class_list":{"0":"post-26350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-charities","9":"tag-leadership","10":"tag-question","11":"tag-samaritans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Name and address supplied<\/strong><\/p>\n