The serial volunteer getting everyone up and helping
People
Roxane Foulser-Piggott runs an innovative and blossoming company that brings charities and potential workers together to fill volunteering needs throughout almost every pocket of Australian society.
Up and running fully for a little more than three years, the Adelaide-based enterprise FreddyMatch is proving a massive hit with 600 charities and has about 30,000 candidates currently listed as looking for help on the freddymatch.org website.
Roxane, who lives with her husband Gary Bowman in Aldgate, has three co-workers who help her cover much of Australia.
She and Gary have three children aged seven and under, including their eldest Samuel, who attends St Catherine’s School in Stirling.
Remarkably, Roxane finds time to volunteer on the side at the Hills Toy Library where Samuel helps on the computer. As a volunteer, of course.
“If I had a lot of money then I wouldn’t have to work and I would do volunteer work every day of the week,” she told The Southern Cross.
“There are probably 50 charities on FreddyMatch that I would love to volunteer for. I’m a serial volunteer.”
Her passion for helping others dates back to when she was 14 and fibbed about her age to be able to work for a UK charity called Scope in Hertfordshire in the UK. Being two years under the requisite age did not detract from her providing a sterling service.
Later, when she was a student, Roxane began to volunteer at Belmarsh prison, a high security facility in decrepit south-east London.
Roxane started working with an affiliated charity, a prisoners’ families and friends service, and was part of an independent monitoring board where members would visit the prison two or three times per rostered month to ensure the prisoners had access to exercise, the library and education. A remit that meant chatting to prisoners and staff and, on occasion, even trying the food.
“It was the most interesting, most fulfilling role I have ever done,” she said.
Roxane, who turns 40 this month, has a PhD in seismic risk in earthquakes from Imperial College (London) and undertook doctoral research at Cambridge University.
Sadly, the genesis for FreddyMatch came through the loss of her first child Freddy, who lived for just 16 days after he was born in May 2017.
Roxane and Gary were living on the Gold Coast where Gary worked at Bond University.
While the medical services were “brilliant” and her employer Suncorp was very supportive, Roxane said there was a need for her to do something bigger and more meaningful.
The desire to make the most of her background and abilities crystalised on a trip around Queensland with Gary following Freddy’s death.
She found there was no vehicle for volunteers to find good and rewarding work.
“I just wanted to know how to use my skills and find a role for me. I wanted a way I could match volunteers with roles,” she said.
With some help from a website builder aptly named Gabriel she began FreddyMatch with 10 charities on the Gold Coast and it slowly developed.
Made redundant when COVD hit in 2020, she decided to put all her energies into the website.
The mechanics are simple. Every charity can list one volunteer role for free with advertised roles costing $150 per year thereafter. A full service, volunteer recruitment and management package starts at $250 pcm with Vinnies in Queensland one of its bigger clients.
Building a base of regional customers has been imperative, mainly through word of mouth.
Navigating the site is simple. Potential volunteers can key in where they’d like to work, add preferred hours as well as their skills.
Little and large openings are catered for equally and a current opening through the St Jude’s Aged Care Visitors Scheme in Adelaide hits the mark every time in this respect.
Friendly Fortnightly Visitor for Older Lady needed for a chat and a friendly game of Scrabble, says the ad. One hour each week, flexible and ongoing.
Schools and corporates are the two big target markets for FreddyMatch. Ridding volunteering of old age, and age old, stigmas is a must for the industry in general, according to Roxane.
“There is a stigma with young people volunteering. It’s word association, op-shop for example gives a certain persona and discourages younger people. As a young person you can’t volunteer because it’s for older people.
“Volunteering has been constructed around an older sector for retired people and that fell off during COVID. To attract younger people you have to find ways to make it appeal to them. This doesn’t mean volunteering will be in trouble for ever but it’s going to take some work and we do need to build a compelling narrative.”
Roxane said volunteering was not about the economic value it brought but the impact you can have as a volunteer and in a way that works for each individual.
“For example, you can make a comfort blanket or trauma teddy,” she said.
“They are really popular with younger people.”
FreddyMatch has moved past its initial premise and immediate association.
“I didn’t want to make it just about Freddy,” Roxane said.
“It’s exhausting to tell the story over and over again. I will never leave that behind but I needed to move beyond that story and choose when I talk about it.
“I want to talk about the impact we are having, the numbers. I want us to be able to find a voice.”
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