My name is Jason Hodges, I'm from the South Wales valleys. I live in a little village called Cwmcarn and I work as a volunteer at the Compass Project in Newport South Wales which is a centre. The Compass Project is a centre for the homeless and socially excluded people. The Compass Project is a purposefully built centre, arts centre, which provides activities to motivate people and break cycle of homelessness and social exclusion.

I was interested in becoming a volunteer, one to ease myself back into work after being out of work for a long period of time, and two, to broaden my experiences and change direction in my career. I started off working in the art room, working teaching people art and supporting people. But now I've moved into teaching people basic skills, literacy and numeracy and basic skills on the computer. Which surprised me really because originally my skills were in teaching art.

Helping people is a very rewarding part of working here and it can happen in very small ways. For example, I've worked with one student just on introducing her to using the internet and it was revelation for her. Just that simple act of taking her through the process of using the internet and the amazing library of information that was there for her after she'd found out how to use it was fantastic and now she's using the internet all the time.

I've worked with Mohamed 3 months, which is a relatively short time. But in that time you can see his confidence in the language has improved, has increased and you can see that he's accessing other courses. So obviously his confidence is improving and his knowledge of the English language has just snowballed.

Yeah, I think to be a volunteer you need different skills depending on what sort of volunteer work you're doing but, I think, also an open mind and sense of adventure. For me it's helped me build my confidence, after being out for a while, and it's helping me to change direction in the way I work and it's generally helping me move on in my life.

My name is Mohamed, I'm from Somalia. I came this country, November last year. I'm studying at the Compass Project, I'm enjoying my studying. I've nearly finished my course. I was living NASH, Newport Action Single Homeless and my key worker press me to join Compass, that's why I came to Compass. I like it at Compass.

When I come to Compass teachers support me very well then I'm learning well, to improve. I now have one teacher called Jason and Jason support me my English very well. That's why I'm recording today.

Jason is improving my English skills, writing and speaking, practical so he's a very kind teacher. Sometimes we sit down and read newspapers. Then we come back on computer and write down on computer. I also sit down to practise my speaking skills, we sit down and talk each other.

I think it is very important to give me a good chance and improving myself to improve my English skills and English speaking. I think people should volunteer to improve their social life and how to teach people. To know people's problems and to teach people how they become knowledge people. I think Jason is good guy, he's improving my speaking, writing and my skills. He's doing a great job.