Things I’ve helped with

Volunteering

Much of my volunteering has been at local council events in Islington, plus some time at my local Mind charity shop. Unsurprisingly, I've also done lots online: mostly coding for charities and local groups, but also helping with social media and websites. That includes contributing to Namesake.

Online and open source

Namesake

I contribute to Namesake, a non-profit that publishes free name change guides and tools for trans people in the U.S. I mainly work on the code behind the website and services, although am currently working on non-code research for the project.

Visit Namesake, or see the project on GitHub.

Around Islington

Parks and local events

I’ve helped the Islington Council Parks team at the Grow Show, Apple Day and the Spring Festival at Gillespie Park. Knowing everyone who runs these events makes it hard to get away!

At different events I welcomed visitors, made apple juice and catalogued show entries. I’ve also popped up in Islington Life and the Islington Gazette a few times.

I also made the Friends of St John’s Garden website for a local council group that looks after a small green space in Farringdon.

Tom helping press apples at Apple Day — Making apple juice at Apple Day in Gillespie Park

Tom cataloguing entries at the Islington Grow Show — Cataloguing entries at the Islington Grow Show

In the shop

Mind charity shop

I also volunteered at my local Mind charity shop. That meant serving people at the till, sorting donations and helping the other volunteers with whatever needed doing.

Yep, My hair was stupidly long.