I’m Jodie, one of the volunteers at Birmingham FoE. I was brought up as a vegetarian and had to make a decision in my teenage years about whether to stay vegetarian or not. I decided to stay vegetarian for animal welfare and environmental reasons. I therefore became interested in environmental issues from quite an early age. During my university studies when I was looking to gain work experience, I saw a volunteering position at Birmingham Friends of the Earth and thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me and I was right.
I started volunteering at Birmingham FoE in 2015 as an office-based waste and recycling campaigner. This involved a whole range of tasks from research to designing campaign materials and then later, once I had settled in, going to speak at events on behalf of the group. The office-based and public speaking experience I built up through this role really helped me to secure a paid role in the civil service.
Now that I’m working, I enjoy staying involved in the group by attending meetings and events in the evenings or at weekends. I am now one of the coordination team members, supporting with making decisions which affect the group and helping to support volunteers. I enjoy staying involved and this is important to me.
Here I am proudly wearing our bee costume!
