How Skilled Volunteering Helped Wave Hub Double Its Impact

Impact Story by Skilled Volunteer | Sophia Mobbs

Every week in the north of London, a gorgeous café welcomes people from all walks of life – those with and without learning disabilities. Wave Hub is a community space in Muswell Hill built upon the premise that genuine inclusion happens through shared activities and experiences. To put this into practice, Wave Hub runs fun community-powered activities that bring people together – from art and crafts, fitness classes, dance sessions, and more.

Wave Hub director Leona Akass Ostra says of this mission,

“Really important to Wave is our ethos of ‘with, not for’ – we are not providing services for people with learning disabilities because no, that’s not what they want. There are enough services like that. Everything we do is about doing it together.

In addition to the general community, Wave Hub also partners with local schools for autistic children and teenagers. One day a week, students come for work experience – helping set up the café and art classes, getting involved in the café kitchen, or however else their skills and interests can be best developed. Wave Hub similarly offers work experience to young adults with learning difficulties:

“Everyone’s included and everyone is encouraged and enabled to do their best work…We carved out jobs for people, and we’re not trying to drive a square peg into a round hole, because that just doesn’t work.”

As one might imagine, it takes a lot of time and dedication for a small charity to keep all this running! Last year, Leona realised that whilst all their front of house activities were progressing swimmingly, the financial details behind the scenes needed more attention. That’s when she reached out to Link UP London.

Leona first heard about Link UP via our online Lunch and Learn sessions:

“I really rate their Lunch and Learns. I attended a few things from different orgs, and Link UP are able to get real industry professionals – so within that hour and a half you do learn a lot.”

Heartened by this, Leona got in touch and asked if we could help her find a bookkeeper to develop her financial systems through our Skilled Volunteer projects. Though it took a few months, Leona felt the wait was worth it – we matched Skilled Volunteer David with Wave Hub, and the rest is history.

As an accountant with decades of experience, David quickly got to work sorting out Wave Hub’s books, instilling new accounting procedures, and ensuring every last detail was addressed – with the result that wave Hub was able to submit their annual report paperwork on time and in good form. Looking forwards, he’s also ensured they are well-prepared to submit their annual report to the Charity Commission at the end of April.

“There isn’t anything David doesn’t know about, in terms of bookkeeping and running the financial side of an organisation…We were immediately confident we struck gold – ‘This is the guy who will get stuff done’! His level of experience was much more than what we had hoped for.”

The result of David’s volunteering had resonant impact for the Wave Hub team. Having taken the load of financials off their shoulder (as well as training them up in his efficient new systems) meant that they are now free to focus on their individual roles – writing more funding applications, dedicating more time to events, and connecting with the community. In turn, this has enabled Wave Hub to blossom into an even more transformational place for community members:

“David’s gift is gift of time for us not to have to do the things he does. Because then that allows me and my colleagues to spend more time on training people, developing their life skills and sort of helping them on their journey to independence and journey to sustainable employment.”

Leona also shared that David has provided a safe presence for her to finally get to grips with her own financial literacy, cutting down any errors she might have made and drastically reducing her stress levels:

“He completely revolutionised the way we work behind the scenes…Things that I have dreaded, that caused a great deal of stress, became tasks I looked forward to tackling because it meant I could meet with David.”

And last but certainly not least; the practical outcome of all these changes means that Wave Hub is now able to double their service hours! From September, Wave Hub is planning to open their doors for a second day per week, ensuring they never have to turn away any interested community members.

For organisations considering asking Link UP for help, Leona says:

“I would say give it a go and be patient – you will be surprised what level of skills Link UP can connect you with. l personally had no idea there are people who are willing to give this level of time and dedication to tiny charities like us. I think they all deserve a medal and I’m already asking for another project!”