Meet Julia Hines

“I’m not super-wonderful at parties, but I’m quite good at talking to people when I have a purpose and a focus. I previously worked as first a doctor and then a lawyer and, whilst you can offer people your knowledge, it’s not your body, it’s not your case, it’s not your life. I want everyone to have choices and power over their own lives so, since then, for around the past 15 years, I’ve been volunteering on a whole range of projects to help facilitate that. It’s also a way of meeting people I might not otherwise, and I’ve learned loads.

“During the pandemic I became a Barnet Health Champion, which involved regular Zoom meetings with Public Health Barnet, and then talking to people to help counter the COVID myths and empower them to have those conversations with others themselves, as well as feeding back to Public Health Barnet how people were feeling. That ties in well with my helping out at a vaccine centre. I’m also part of Grange Big Local which works to support kids in the poorer bits of Finchley. We worked with Bishop Douglass school to open their grounds after hours in the summer term, and put on a holiday play scheme which also provided free food. Then we produced an activity booklet called ‘The Archers Arrows’. That taught kids about local history and birds, had drawing, colouring-in, word, embroidery and mask-making exercises, taught them some yoga poses, boxing moves and football drills, and it was a fun scavenger hunt for them out in the open air too. I also helped set up a group to improve the Market Place playground, helped another group get the N2 Food Project off the ground, and created a garden in the Archer Academy. Some of it is about coming up with ideas and thinking them through strategically; some of it is about helping others to get their ideas going, using the practical skills I’ve gained over my years of volunteering. Whenever anyone I’ve helped achieves their goal, it makes me feel so proud.”