Volunteer Spotlight: Gordon Palmer

Gordon Palmer, spent 19 years as a Minister in the South of Scotland, now, he volunteers at The Well. In the latest issue, we spoke with Palmer and learned about what brought him to the Southside and how supports the visitors at The Well.

As told to Molly Adams | Photo by Karen Gordon

In 2022, I retired as a Church of Scotland Minister in East Kilbride. I had been there for 19 years and because it was one of those jobs where the accommodation comes with the role, I knew we were going to have to move once I retired.

We thought long and hard about where to go. I am originally from Glasgow, and we've got a daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter in Mount Florida. We began to think, gosh, wouldn't we quite like to live in the Southside? We wanted to be somewhere we could get our teeth into, somewhere with a sense of community and activity. 

I was familiar with the work of The Well as it was originally a Church of Scotland Project. We had some good friends who'd been very involved, and we've known the manager of The Well for some time. We knew that there was a need, so my wife and I both volunteered to be advisors.

I find it enriching meeting different people and seeing what some have on their plate. A lot of folks have got so much piled on and against them, the fact that they're here is an achievement.

I’ve helped people with debt issues, benefits payments and even people who are going to be thrown out of their property. You feel as if you are really making a difference. Often folk come back and talk about the impact it’s had, socially and emotionally – just to have a place they feel supported by.

We'd be so pleased to hear from anyone who is interested in being a volunteer advisor. We're short on staff, so we're regularly having to turn people away. I'd urge anyone who is interested to have a look at the website and get In touch.

We also have a women's craft and chat group on a Tuesday afternoon, a men's club, which is very informal, with just a few board games and a women and toddlers’ group on a Wednesday morning, which meets in Govanhill Free Church.

I’m also involved with organising the Govanhill Litter Pick. My wife and I responded to a Facebook post seeing if there was any interest and it’s been going for a few months now. We've been getting about forty folk each time. We meet at the premises of Govanhill Free Church on Belleisle Street on the last Saturday of each month and we invite anyone to join us.

It's one of these things that seems to spread best by word of mouth. I think a strength of Govanhill is there's a lot of folks here, but the challenge seems to be finding them. The folks that come along each month are great and we’re so glad to have them, but we’d love to have more people from different groups come along.