Accommodation Search Volunteer Roles
Global impact volunteers seeks to give volunteers those who are taking a gap year those who want to try something differentto travel to Ghana anyone who wants to have a life changing experience who want to impact other lives the platform to make a difference in the lives of others with their skills and innovative ideas whilst they also learn from other cultures. You will work with children from a wide age range,
Global impact volunteer is searching for motivated and driven individuals who are passionate about making a global impact. We welcome all individuals regardless of their race, color, social status, or continent to join us in promoting active community integration through service learning.
By participating in our program, individuals can boost their confidence, self-esteem, and employability, becoming valuable members of their nation and the world. We offer placement opportunities for those who wish to experience life outside of their country and make a positive impact through service learning.
Our program takes care of all necessary arrangements, including safe and secure accommodation, to ensure a memorable experience for our volunteers and their hosts. Join us today to learn and live while making a difference in the world.
Volunteering abroad offers numerous benefits. Firstly, youth who volunteer are more employable due to the strong work ethic, interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills they develop through their voluntary work. Additionally, volunteering can have a positive impact on your mental, social, emotional, and physical well-being by providing life-changing experiences.
Volunteering also promotes independence and helps you make your own decisions, as you may find yourself far from home, friends, and luxuries. It encourages you to be more aware of life’s issues and committed to bringing change to your community and the world. Lastly, volunteering helps you identify yourself, increases your self-esteem and empathy for other humans, especially the vulnerable, and connects you with like-minded youth.
Give people the opportunity to offer their skills, time to build stronger, positive impact and more active communities.
The Chester Bluecoat Charity, the longest standing charity in Chester, is currently searching for inspirational individuals to join our board as a volunteer trustee to help steer the charity as it strives to raise the bar on the positive impact it has in the city and surrounding areas.
Under new leadership, 2024 is set to be a particularly exciting year as we develop and implement a new strategy to support more people than ever before and help the charity reach its full potential. In order to achieve this, we are recruiting new trustees who can help drive this transformation by bringing additional expertise to our dedicated team, specifically in the charity, community, social housing and legal sectors.
About the Charity
The Chester Bluecoat Charity helps to tackle the causes of poverty, disadvantage, and inequality across the city. As the city’s longest standing charity, we are proud to have been helping the people of Chester and surrounding areas for more than 800 years.
Based in the historic Bluecoat Building, in the heart of the City of Chester, we work to change the lives of people in need in three distinct ways:
- Grant Giving – We award grants to organisations that use education and community development to improve peoples’ lives.
- Rentable office and meeting room space at our Bluecoat Building – We offer third sector office space to local charities and voluntary organisations, as well as meeting rooms for hire to businesses throughout the city.
- Almshouses – We provide Almshouse accommodation for people in need in the 16 Almshouses that we own and maintain which are situated at rear of the Bluecoat Building.
At its core, the charity owns several properties in Chester which enables us to generate a rental income, and subsequently provide Almshouse accommodation and office space to Third Sector organisations. These funds also allow the charity to provide grants and support to organisations such as Blacon Beacon, Koala, KidsBank and Platform for Life, to name but a few…
Why should you become a trustee?
Are you passionate about Chester? Do you want to make a real difference in the lives of those in our community who need our help? Do you want to be part of a team trying to do some good by making lasting change?
By becoming a trustee of The Chester Bluecoat Charity, you can do just that! In this role, you can shape and steer the city’s oldest charity and help it reach its full potential. This is an opportunity for you to give back to the city of Chester in a meaningful, rewarding role, whilst making new connections during an exciting time of transformational change in the charity.
What skills should I have?
The Chester Bluecoat Charity are looking for trustees with the following skills in particular:
- Charity and community experience.
- Social housing/housing association experience (Almshouses)
- Legal
In addition, trustees should be able to offer:
- Great communication skills
- Be able to contribute to strategic planning
- Independent, sound judgement
- Willingness to provide opinion and reasons for the conclusions drawn
- Ability to think creatively and problem solve
- Capable of working effectively as a member of a team
As we are focused on Chester and its’ surrounds, we expect our trustees to either be resident in Chester or have strong links with the city.
How will I make a difference?
As part of our trustee board, you will shape the work of The Chester Bluecoat Charity and provide support to the team to achieve our charitable aims. You will be part a charity that tackles the causes of poverty, inequality, and disadvantage in and around Chester by using our resources effectively to provide grants to other organisations and charities, amongst other work.
Our trustees dedicate around 5-10 hours a month to The Chester Bluecoat Charity by attending internal meetings and assisting the team in delivering our strategy.
When would I participate in trustee meetings?
The main board meet 6 times a year. Trustees are appointed for an initial term of three years, with the possibility of two further terms.
Trustee meetings are usually held at The Bluecoat on Upper Northgate Street, Chester, however these may also be joined virtually.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Position Overview
Based in Madagascar, this position will work across SEED’s Community Health Department including maternal and child health, SRHR and food security. We use community-led, participatory approaches, working with local communities to identify and implement projects that meet their needs and priorities. It is a superb opportunity for an early career development professional to be part of a team of national and international staff supporting the development, funding, reporting and evaluation of our community health programme.
Primary responsibilities include the writing of donor reports and proposals, providing additional support to the project team surrounding project management and monitoring and evaluation. The role is predominantly office-based with some bush travel. The diversity of activities undertaken will provide a wide-ranging experience for an early career development professional who can effectively and efficiently deal with a comprehensive range of tasks related to the complex world of overseas development.
Title: Programme Intern for initial three months, change of title and responsibilities to Programme Officer subject to passing probationary review
Location: Fort Dauphin, Madagascar
Probationary Period: Three months
Contract: Voluntary for 12 months, with stipend of 800,000 Ar per month towards accommodation and a contribution of £650 towards insurance
Reporting to: Senior Programme Officer
Duties and Responsibilities
- Write project reports, to a high standard of English, that clearly demonstrate the successes and challenges of our community health projects and provide clear budgetary information
- Compile funding proposals based on past evaluation, team discussion and International best practice in an engaging and professional manner
- Conduct internet searches and searches through SEED’s funder database for potential donors to fund projects
- Take a leading role in gathering statistics and ensure that all existing statistics relating to the projects are accurate
- Work alongside the Communications and Media Officer to build a communications plan for the community health projects, writing regular Facebook, blog posts and website copy
- Support the development of projects that fulfil local need and sit within the aims of SEED taking into account research findings, local needs and constraints, government objectives and SEED’s previous experience
- Conduct research into international best practices with regard to SEED’s community health programme and take the lead in discussing these with the team
- Monitor and update project trackers according to project activities, ensuring the project is on track to meet project indicators and objectives
- Take an active role in project management meetings, leading these where appropriate
- Take an active part in international team meetings and support to other members of the team
- Work with national staff in increasing their skills and capacity, providing mentoring or training where appropriate
- Assist in data collection and basic analysis where required and where there is an Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Specialist in post assist them in developing monitoring and evaluation tools and completing MEL reports for projects
- Work alongside the Head of Project Development and Head of Finance in developing and managing the budgets relating to projects
- Maintain a database of projects and funders alongside the UK and remote team
- Form part of the team representing projects or SEED when required.
- Liaise with the UK team in London ensuring clear communication at all times.
- Ensure all of SEED’s policies and procedures are evident throughout the work of the department, including those for safeguarding, whistleblowing and anticorruption, and undertake continual training to ensure these are promoted at all times
- Complete other ad-hoc tasks as required by the Senior Programme Officer, Head of Community Health Programmes or Director of Operations and Heads of Departments to further the aims and work of the organisation.
Person Specification
● Hold an undergraduate in or relating to community health, general development or have transferable skills or equivalent experience
● Demonstrate strong writing skills. Previous experience in grant-writing is an asset.
● Demonstrate sound knowledge and keen interest in Community Health and its interface with international development
● Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to SEED’s ethos and approach and be a good ambassador for SEED at all times
● Have passion, curiosity and motivation for the job and the ability to enthuse others
● Have the ability and desire to work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers
● Have the ability and desire to build capacity and share skills across cultures and work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers
● Demonstrate proven ability to recognise and appropriately deal with challenging situations
● Demonstrate an awareness of and comfort with increased social and professional responsibility, working at all times with cultural sensitivity and respect
● Demonstrate the ability, social skills and confidence to give clear guidance and support to other members of the team in respect of the philosophy and procedures of SEED in order to protect both their safety and the reputation of the NGO
● Be able to work to and advocate for all of SEED’s policies and procedures, safeguarding those that SEED works with and reporting any concerns appropriately
● Be punctual and be able to work to tight deadlines in an organised manner and to a high standard
● Have a flexible and patient attitude
● Have excellent problem-solving skills
● Be able to work both independently and as part of a team
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Position Overview
Based in the coastal town of Fort Dauphin in the southeast of Madagascar, this post will provide support to the WASH and Schools projects implemented by the NGO. The successful candidate will work within a combined national and international team to assist in the development of projects, from initial planning stages to final evaluations.
Primary responsibilities include the writing of donor reports and proposals, providing additional support to the project team surrounding project management and monitoring and evaluation. The role is predominantly office-based with some bush travel. The diversity of activities undertaken will provide a wide-ranging experience for an early career development professional who can effectively and efficiently deal with a comprehensive range of tasks related to the complex world of overseas development.
Title: ’Programme Intern’ for initial three months, change of title and responsibilities to ‘Programme Officer’ subject to passing probationary review
Location: Fort Dauphin, Anosy Region, Madagascar
Timeframe: 1 year, extendable
Terms and conditions: Voluntary, with stipend of 800,000 Ar per month towards accommodation and contribution to insurance of £650
Reporting to: Senior Programme Officer
Duties and responsibilities:
- Write project reports, to a high standard of English, that clearly demonstrate the successes and challenges of the WASH and Education infrastructure projects, learning from the project and providing clear budgetary information
- Compile funding proposals based on past evaluation, team discussion and International best practice in an engaging and professional manner
- Conduct internet searches and searches through SEED’s funder database for potential donors to fund projects
- Take a leading role in gathering statistics and ensure that all existing statistics relating to the projects are accurate
- Work alongside the Communications and Media Officer writing regular Facebook, blog posts and website copy
- Support the development of projects that fulfill local need and sit within the aims of SEED taking into account research findings, local needs and constraints, government objectives and SEED’s previous experience
- Conduct research into international best practice with regard to Community Health, WASH and Education infrastructure programmes and take the lead in discussing these with the team
- Monitor and update project trackers according to project activities, ensuring the project is on track to meet project indicators and objectives
- Take an active role in project management meetings, leading these where appropriate
- Take an active part in international team meetings and support to other members of the team
- Work with national staff in increasing their skills and capacity, providing mentoring or training where appropriate
- Assist in data collection and basic analysis where required and where there is an Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Specialist in post assist them in developing monitoring and evaluation tools and completing MEL reports for projects
- Work alongside the Head of Project Development and Head of Finance in developing and
managing the budgets relating to projects - Maintain a database of projects and funders alongside the UK team in London
- Form part of the team representing projects or SEED when required
- Liaise with the UK team in London ensuring clear communication at all times
- Ensure all of SEED’s policies and procedures are evident throughout the work of the department, including those for safeguarding, whistleblowing and anticorruption, and undertake continual training to ensure these are promoted at all times
- Complete other ad-hoc tasks as required by the WASH and Schools Programme Coordinators, Head of Project Development or Director of Operations and Heads of Departments to further the aims and work of the organisation.
- Person specification
- Hold an undergraduate in or relating to community health, WASH, general development or have transferable skills or equivalent experience
- Demonstrate strong writing skills. Previous experience in grant-writing is an asset
- Demonstrate sound knowledge and keen interest in Environment and Sustainable Livelihoods, Community Health, WASH and Education infrastructure and its interface with international development; previous experience of WASH, education or community-based work would be an asset
- Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to SEED’s ethos and approach and be a good ambassador for SEED at all times
- Have passion, curiosity and motivation for the job and the ability to enthuse others
- Have the ability and desire to work with teams from different economic and cultural
backgrounds and across multiple language barriers - Have the ability and desire to build capacity and share skills across cultures and work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers
- Demonstrate proven ability to recognise and appropriately deal with challenging situations
- Demonstrate an awareness of and comfort with increased social and professional responsibility, working at all times with cultural sensitivity and respect
- Demonstrate the ability, social skills and confidence to give clear guidance and support to other members of the team in respect of the philosophy and procedures of SEED in order to protect both their safety and the reputation of the NGO
- Be able to work to and advocate for all of SEED’s policies and procedures, safeguarding those that SEED works with and reporting any concerns appropriately
- Be punctual and be able to work to tight deadlines in an organised manner and to a high standard
- Have a flexible and patient attitude
- Have excellent problem-solving skills
- Be able to work both independently and as part of a team.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Position Overview
Based in the coastal town of Fort Dauphin in the southeast of Madagascar, this post will provide support to the Environment and Rural Livelihoods projects implemented by the NGO. The successful candidate will work within a combined national and international team to assist in the development of projects, from initial planning stages to final evaluations. Primary responsibilities include the writing of donor reports and proposals, providing additional support to the project team surrounding project management and monitoring and evaluation. The role is predominantly office-based with some bush travel. The diversity of activities undertaken will provide a wide-ranging experience for an early career development professional who can effectively and efficiently deal with a comprehensive range of tasks related to the complex world of overseas development.
Title: Programme Intern for initial three months, change of title and responsibilities to Programme Officer subject to passing probationary review
Location: Fort Dauphin, Madagascar
Probationary Period: three months
Contract: Voluntary for 12 months, with monthly stipend towards accommodation costs and a contribution of £650 towards insurance
Reporting to: Senior Programme Officer
Duties and Responsibilities
● Write project reports, to a high standard of English, that clearly demonstrate the successes and challenges of the Environment and Rural Livelihoods projects, learning from the project and providing clear budgetary information
● Compile funding proposals based on past evaluation, team discussion and International best practice in an engaging and professional manner
● Conduct internet searches and searches through SEED’s funder database for potential donors to fund projects
● Take a leading role in gathering statistics and ensure that all existing statistics relating to the projects are accurate
● Work alongside the Communications and Media Officer to build a communications plan for the Environment and Rural Livelihoods projects, writing regular Facebook, blog posts and website copy
● Support the development of projects that fulfill local need and sit within the aims of SEED taking into account research findings, local needs and constraints, government objectives and SEED’s previous experience
● Conduct research into international best practice with regard to Environment and Rural Livelihoods programmes and take the lead in discussing these with the team
● Monitor and update project trackers according to project activities, ensuring the project is on track to meet project indicators and objectives
● Take an active role in project management meetings, leading these where appropriate
● Take an active part in international team meetings and support to other members of the team
● Work with national staff in increasing their skills and capacity, providing mentoring or training where appropriate
● Assist in data collection and basic analysis where required and where there is an Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Specialist in post assist them in developing monitoring and evaluation tools and completing MEL reports for projects
● Work alongside the Head of Project Development and Head of Finance in developing and managing the budgets relating to projects
● Maintain a database of projects and funders alongside the UK team in London
● Form part of the team representing projects or SEED when required
● Liaise with the UK team in London ensuring clear communication at all times
● Ensure all of SEED’s policies and procedures are evident throughout the work of the department, including those for safeguarding, whistleblowing, and anticorruption, and undertake continual training to ensure these are promoted at all times
● Complete other ad-hoc tasks as required by the Environment and Rural Livelihoods Programme Coordinators, Head of Project Development or Director of Operations and Heads of Departments to further the aims and work of the organisation.
Person Specification
● Hold an undergraduate in or relating to community health or have equivalent experience
● Demonstrate strong writing skills. Previous experience in grant-writing is an asset
● Demonstrate sound knowledge and keen interest in Environment and Rural Livelihoods and its interface with international development; previous experience of Environment and Rural Livelihoods or community-based work would be an asset
● Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to SEED’s ethos and approach and be a good ambassador for SEED at all times
● Have passion, curiosity and motivation for the job and the ability to enthuse others
● Have the ability and desire to work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers
● Have the ability and desire to build capacity and share skills across cultures and work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers
● Demonstrate proven ability to recognise and appropriately deal with challenging situations
● Demonstrate an awareness of and comfort with increased social and professional responsibility, working at all times with cultural sensitivity and respect
● Demonstrate the ability, social skills and confidence to give clear guidance and support to other members of the team in respect of the philosophy and procedures of SEED in order to protect both their safety and the reputation of the NGO
● Be able to work to and advocate for all of SEED’s policies and procedures, safeguarding those that SEED works with and reporting any concerns appropriately
● Be punctual and be able to work to tight deadlines in an organised manner and to a high standard
● Have a flexible and patient attitude
● Have excellent problem-solving skills
● Be able to work both independently and as part of a team.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Progress towards equality for autistic children and young people has been made and we’re proud of our role in this as a movement for change. But there is still more progress to be made. This is an opportunity to lead the board of a charity that is ensuring we live in a world where autistic children and young people can be themselves and realise their ambitions.
Location: London across several sites.
Applications close on Friday 31st May.
Who we are.
Ambitious about Autism is the national charity for autistic children and young people. We were established in 1997 by a group of families of autistic children who were concerned about the lack of appropriate provision for their children. Following a major capital fundraising campaign and a series of temporary locations and premises, Treehouse School and our charity moved into purpose-built accommodation in 2008, together creating the Pears National Centre for Autism Education. Since then, we have grown our education services opening Ambitious College, The Rise School and Spring School, and merging with St John’s College in September 2023, alongside extending our national influencing and enabling activities.
We run specialist education services and an award-winning employment programme, wherein children and young people are at the heart of our charity’s decision-making, policy work and campaigning. We also use our expertise to deliver training and consultancy to a wide range of organisations to improve awareness and understanding of autism. We want to help even more autistic children and young people to improve their quality of life and secure a fulfilling and rewarding future.
Even during the pandemic, we lived up to our name as we achieved so many goals and plans. We developed our Right from the Start toolkit, launched our Employ Autism campaign, and have grown and evolved.
We are experiencing an exciting period of growth. We were chosen to open a new school – Spring School which supports up to 90 pupils at capacity from ages 4-19 and we announced our merger with St John’s College. Although this is exciting, we have a battle on our hands as we call on the government to follow their solutions in the SEND Green Paper. We’re concerned that some of the proposals will make it even harder for autistic children to access education support and so we are asking for a public commitment from the government to fund support for children with SEND. There are more than twice as many children with SEND in schools and colleges now than there were in 2010, but the government has not set out what funding will be available to pay for the additional support they need.
We know there is an increasing need for mental health support across all schools. Everyone should be able to feel OK at school. But we know this isn’t the case for many autistic pupils. That’s why we created the Autistic and OK programme to empower autistic pupils to take control of their mental health and wellbeing, understand themselves and feel OK at school. Our guide is free for every single secondary school. But there is more for us to do, to continue to build and empower our communities to ensure autistic young people feel understood and accepted.
We recognise that there is still more to be done to grow and develop our important work, first outlined in our Time for Ambition 2021-2024 strategy and so we are extending this strategy for a further two years. Our aims continue to include ensuring autistic children and young people have an excellent and inclusive education, alongside striving for every autistic young person to have good careers education at school and in further and higher education, including experience of work. Autistic people need services that support good mental health by reducing isolation and so we want to ensure early intervention through signposting to specialist support. We aim to ensure peer networks are available alongside uplifting but realistic information tailored to autistic young people and their families. We also want to further develop our Ambitious Youth Network and continue to expand nationally to empower young people to connect with one another and to influence societal change.
Given we run schools, following a governance review in December 2019, we created our own Multi-Academy Trust – Ambitious about Autism Schools Trust (AaAST) which currently has two schools. We implemented several new changes to our governance including Joint Trustees and a joint committee structure wherein there are five trustees each of the Charity and Trust Boards and three Trustees who are Trustees of both Boards who serve as the joint Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer of the Charity and Trust. All Trustees of the Charity and Trust are members of a Joint Group Board Committee to ensure oversight of the Charity and Trust. How this works in practice is everyone meets together with a short meeting afterwards to discuss Ambitious about Autism Schools Trust.
Our new Chair.
Our current Chair, Neil Goulden, is approaching the end of his term in December 2024, and we are in search of our next Chair to lead our Board. We need a Chair who has extensive experience in modern board leadership, ensuring robust governance, and promoting collective strategic decision-making. We are looking for someone who is commercially astute, as we strive to drive our organisation’s continued growth, ambition, and development. We value a Chair who embodies credibility and adeptness in navigating complexity. The ability to work with others and build trusting relationships with a variety of stakeholders are key.
Our new Chair must be committed to making a meaningful impact and leading an organisation that empowers young autistic people during a pivotal period of change in our communities. We need a Chair who is an inclusive leader, fostering engagement, strategic thinking, and openness who will lead the board as an
exemplar of inclusivity. They must be supportive and challenging, creating opportunities for growth and positive impact.
It is vital that our new Chair works with the board to ensure that all voices are heard and will have an affinity for our mission to stand with autistic children and young people, champion their rights, and create opportunities.
The new Chair will work with an established board and ambitious executive team that is ensuring our organisation is sustainable, evolving, innovative and impactful, and leads change whilst providing outstanding education to young autistic people.
The Board meets once a term and has an annual strategy away day. We expect the time commitment for the Chair to vary, and we would expect the equivalent on average of circa two days a month across various activities such as preparation for board meetings, reading board papers, regular conversation with the Chief Executive, ad hoc discussions with board members and the executive team, and attending events throughout the year.
Our board is diverse in many ways, including autistic people, who are part of our board, alongside a balance of gender, ethnicity, and age. We want to continue ensuring our Board represents our society and the people we work with every day.
Please click 'Apply via website’ to be redirected to the Peridot Partners website, where you can find full details of the candidate profile and register your interest to apply.
Applications for this role close Friday 31st May.