Keeping track of who’s who in The Fed’s Volunteer Services Team has been a bit of a challenge since manager, Dalia Kaufman, took over from Juliette Pearce last
summer. The team seems to have been playing musical chairs for months – and adding rather than removing chairs!
Juliette now oversees our rapidly growing My Voice Project but that’s a story for our next issue in June.
Thankfully the doors of the team’s third floor offices seem to have now stopped revolving and the above photo taken at their Chanukah party for south Manchester clients, will help you identify the whole team – including former deputy manager, Tammi Wise, who left at thestart of this month after 19 years’ service.She and her husband, are preparingor a new life in
Israel, joining their three children.
Not quite the latest recruit to the Volunteer Services Team is NextGen Coordinator Tammy Friedlander who joined The Fed at the end of October.
“The job entails me finding ways to talk to potential volunteers – aged 11 to 40 .
“I put on small events such as Wine & Words evenings, or Coffee & Chat mornings in people’s houses and tell people what they can do as a
volunteer. I go into schools and unis, to Fed events – anywhere that young people gather.
“I help Natasha Harries run The Fed’s Bar-BatMitzvah Programme for 12 and 13 year-olds and I run Alpha Feds for 14 and 15 year olds.
“Both programmes include some volunteering for the young people – helping run an activity for residents at Heathlands Village or one of The Fed’s ‘coffee-stops’ get-togethers for
people who are lonely and isolated.
“I will also be helping run the My Voice Guardian Project, at Jewish and non-Jewish schools, recruiting pupils who pledge to learn and share one of the storyteller’s life stories.“
At 35, Tammy is married to Issaac – losing the s from her maiden name, ‘Frieslander’, and acquring a d in its place when they tied the knot.
They have three children – Sammy aged eight, ‘the man of the house’; his side-kick Abie, aged five, and Princess Rebecca who just turned three.
It’s a lively house but Tammy evidently loves the role of traditional observant Jewish mum – despite admitting being a little bit of a rebel in her school days: “I gave my mum a lot of grey hair early on – there was quite a bit of truanting on Cheetham Hill and I’d throw big house parties when my parents were away and I was meant to be staying at my friend’s house. But my mum says I turned out alright in the end!” she laughs.
“I got caught out once by a missing binbag!! We had this party and I cleaned and tidied up the whole house but my dad spotted that there was no bin liner in the kitchen bin – he always puts a new one in when he empties the bin – and he announced, ‘Something’s not right!’ and I had to fess up!”
Tammy was itching to leave school as soon as she finished her AS levels – to the dismay of her teachers and parents – and landed the first job she applied for – as an admin assistant with an engineering recruitment firm – with no clue what ‘recruitment’ was.
She quickly rose through the ranks to become a recruitment consultant – a role she mostly stayed in until recent years. “Once our oldest was in school it became a lot harder to earn
decent money: I couldn’t put the same hours in; my heart wasn’t in it any more – family life had become my priority.
“I wanted a career change and had my eyes on nursing or midwifery, long-term. I did a one year OU introduction to Health and Social Care course intending to apply for Uni but I realised my kids were too young for me to manage a full-time course. Then I ended up chatting one day outside shul (synagogue) with the mother of two of my friends who works for The Fed. She messaged me soon after to tell me about the Next Gen job. I couldn’t believe it! I applied right away and was offered the job within a week.
“I was surprised by how big The Fed is in terms of the number of employees, and how long many have been here and I didn’t expect a charity to be so professional either, if I’m honest, but
flexibile too – unlike one job where I had to log my toilet breaks!
“ This job came just the right time. I’d always fancied working at The Fed. And here I am, absolutely loving it.”