Powered by Volunteers

This evening I was the guest of the Mayor of at a reception to thank the voluntary organisations of the town.

It was one of those quietly uplifting evenings that reset one’s understanding of what really keeps a community functioning.

Throughout this year as High Sheriff, I have been repeatedly surprised by organisations I had previously known nothing about. Just when I think I have a reasonable grasp of Oxfordshire’s civic landscape, another group emerges - faithfully serving, rarely seeking attention, simply getting on with it.

Tonight, for me, that revelation was the extraordinary work of the Community First Responders supported by .

More than 900 Volunteer Responders across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire attend over 30,000 incidents each year. They are trained and dispatched by the ambulance service’s Emergency Operations Centre. They respond to cardiac arrests, strokes, heart attacks and breathing difficulties - life-threatening emergencies where minutes matter.

They arrive before the ambulance crew.
They begin life-saving treatment.
They stabilise.
They reassure.

Then, when the ambulance arrives, they step back.

Their uniform, equipment and training are funded by . They are trained and managed by SCAS’s Community Engagement and Training Team. But what truly powers this work is not structure or branding - it is ordinary people who choose to make themselves available when someone in their community might be facing the worst moment of their life.

They come from every walk of life. What unites them is the decision to serve.

And they were only one part of the story this evening.

There was the local Morris Side, keeping tradition alive with music and movement. Volunteer lifeguards. Scouts and cadets. Sustainable Wantage, steadily championing environmental responsibility. The wonderful Sweatbox youth clubs, creating safe and structured spaces for young people. Parkinsons.me, offering understanding and practical support to those living with Parkinson’s.

And then there was Team Mikayla.

I had the privilege recently of reading Mikayla’s citation at her British Empire Medal ceremony. It was a real pleasure to see her and her mum again tonight. To learn that she is planning to study nursing at university feels entirely fitting. Service begets service.

Team Mikayla gifts to children fighting cancer, raising funds to grant wishes and provide moments of joy for those undergoing treatment. Born out of Mikayla’s own experience of battling brain cancer from a very young age, the charity exists to bring light into some very dark days.

What struck me most this evening was not simply the diversity of voluntary action in one market town, but the deeper truth it revealed.

Our communities are not powered by politicians.
They are not powered by the police.
They are not powered by statutory authorities.

They are powered by volunteers.

By the responder who leaves the dinner table when the pager sounds.
By the youth leader who unlocks the hall each week.
By the lifeguard who watches the water.
By the environmental campaigner who refuses to give up.
By the cadet learning service and discipline.

The statutory services are vital, of course. But the fabric that holds a town together - the preventative work, the belonging, the quiet resilience - is woven by volunteers.

As High Sheriff, much of my work sits alongside the justice system. I see daily what happens when belonging is absent and early support is missing. Evenings like this remind me that the strongest form of crime prevention, the strongest foundation for wellbeing, is community itself.

And community, in Wantage tonight, looked generous, diverse and quietly heroic.