WRVS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The WRVS (formerly the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service) is a voluntary organisation concerned with helping people in need throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
It was initially founded in World War II as the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS), a women’s organisation to aid civilians.
In 1956, Queen Elizabeth II agreed to become patron of WVS and in 1966, she awarded WVS the honour of adding 'Royal' to its title.
Post war, the organisation evolved to helping isolated and lonely people, particularly the elderly. They are particularly well known as providers of the Meals on Wheels service which delivers hot meals to the housebound. In many hospitals, WRVS volunteers provide non-nursing services such as trolley rounds to patients. WRVS emergency teams provide back-up to the professional services in times for major incidents such as the Lockerbie disaster, Hillsborough disaster, Buncefield fuel depot blast and flooding crises. The WRVS also run a number of contact centres which enable non-resident parents to have contact with their children in a safe environment.
In 2004, the organisation's name was changed from the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service to simply WRVS in an attempt to modernise the image and partly in recognition of the fact that 11% of its 70,000 volunteers were men.
