Community advice volunteer roles in cirencester, gloucestershire

The International Council of Museums in the United Kingdom (ICOM UK) is seeking a new trustee with strong financial acumen and a passion for the museums and heritage sector and working internationally to be the Finance Lead on our Board. This is a strategic finance role to support the Strategic Director and advise the Board of Trustees in respect of the conduct of the charity’s financial affairs.  

The role requires experience and skills in financial planning and management, preferably in a charity and/or company, along with the ability to understand and communicate the impact of decisions on the organisation’s finances. 

We welcome applications from professionals with the skills, knowledge and lived experience that will strengthen and diversify our Board. 

 For further details on the roles and ICOM UK, you can view our Finance Lead Trustee Recruitment  Pack. 

Could you be a trustee for Avenues?

Avenues Group is a specialist provider of adult social care, supporting people with complex needs to enjoy life. We always want to do things better, and as part of our development we are now looking for new trustees.

Our trustee group has to reflect the diversity of the people we support and the communities in which we work, and we welcome and encourage applicants from all backgrounds.

We would particularly like to hear from people with lived experience of disability, encouraging people who are accessing support services, and neurodivergent people.

Do you have experience in any of the following?

• Care Sector Financial Experience to join our Board and Finance Committee
• Health and Social Care Experience (outside Avenues) to join our Board and one committee (to be decided).
• People management and organisational development to join our Board and the People, Culture and Reward Committee
• Risk Management (specialising in a quality, compliance and regulatory environment) to join our Board and our Audit and Risk Committee.

If so, we'd like to meet you, apply today and to find out more about us and the role please download the attached trustee pack and role profile. 

Still unsure if this role is for you? We are happy to offer an informal chat with our Head of Governance so feel free to contact us and we can organise this.

Why join us?

You’ll be part of an organisation that instils its values at all levels of the business, ensuring the people we support are at the forefront of our decisions.

Our people love working here, and most trustees stay for many years, becoming as passionate as we are.

This opportunity will be useful for anyone wanting to learn more about being a trustee, full training and support will be provided, and wishing to develop a more rounded skill set. It can also be a fantastic opportunity for someone with many years of experience to share their skills.

As part of our recruitment process, the successful candidates will meet and be interviewed by different stakeholders including people we support and Chairs of Committees as well as our CEO, current Group Boards Chair and other trustees of the board.

Interviews are planned week commencing w/c 18th August and w/c 25th August (subject to any changes due to availability of stakeholders).

We will process your data in line with our privacy policy. To find out more read the Privacy Notice on our website. We want you to have control over your data. You can contact us at any time to request or change the data that we hold about you or even if you just have a question relating to the data, we hold about you.

About Children With Voices
Children With Voices is a dynamic charity focused on empowering children and young people through creative projects, advocacy, and education. Our mission is to give young voices the platform they deserve, supporting them in building confidence and fostering positive change in their communities. As we continue to grow and expand our impact, we are looking for an experienced Senior Human Resources Manager to join us in a volunteer capacity to lead and shape our HR strategies.

Role Overview
We are seeking a proactive and experienced volunteer to take on the role of Senior Human Resources Manager. This is a remote, volunteer position with the option to attend our office, located in Hackney, London, for those who prefer occasional in-person meetings. In this role, you will be responsible for developing and overseeing the HR strategy, policies, and processes that support our staff and volunteers, ensuring that Children With Voices remains a supportive and inclusive workplace.

The ideal candidate will bring substantial HR experience, excellent leadership abilities, and a genuine passion for making a positive impact on the lives of children. You will work closely with the senior management team, providing strategic HR guidance and supporting the growth of the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic HR Leadership

   • Develop and implement HR strategies that align with Children With Voices’ mission and values.

   • Advise the CEO and senior management team on HR-related issues, ensuring the HR function supports the organisation’s objectives.

   • Cultivate a positive, inclusive, and supportive workplace culture in line with the organisation’s ethos.

2. Recruitment and Onboarding

   • Oversee and lead the recruitment process, ensuring the organisation attracts and retains talented individuals who are passionate about our cause.

   • Manage onboarding procedures for new staff and volunteers to ensure a smooth integration into the organisation.

3. Employee Relations and Compliance

   • Provide expert advice on employee relations matters, ensuring fairness and compliance with UK employment law.

   • Offer guidance on disciplinary and grievance procedures and ensure that these processes are conducted fairly and in accordance with best practice.

   • Develop, implement, and maintain HR policies and procedures to ensure consistency and fairness across the organisation.

4. Training and Development

   • Identify opportunities for training and development that will enhance the skills of both staff and volunteers.

   • Promote continuous professional development and support leadership initiatives.

   • Ensure that staff and volunteers have access to the necessary tools and resources to succeed in their roles.

5. Wellbeing and Staff Engagement

   • Lead initiatives to promote the wellbeing and mental health of all staff and volunteers.

   • Develop and implement staff engagement programmes to foster a motivated, satisfied, and high-performing workforce.

6. HR Operations and Administration

   • Oversee the day-to-day HR administration, including maintaining accurate records, supporting payroll processing (where relevant), and ensuring that employee benefits are effectively managed.

   • Develop HR reports and provide insights to support decision-making.

   • Ensure all HR activities are managed efficiently and with the highest level of confidentiality.

Key Requirements

• Experience:

  • Proven experience in HR management, with a strong understanding of employment law and best practices.

  • Experience in managing employee relations, performance management, recruitment, and organisational development.

  • Experience working with senior teams to implement HR strategies.

• Skills:

  • Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to work collaboratively and provide strategic guidance.

  • High organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a remote working environment.

  • Sound knowledge of HR software and systems for managing HR functions.

  • Ability to work independently and remotely, with occasional in-person meetings as required.

• Qualifications:

  • CIPD Level 7 or equivalent HR qualification is desirable, but not essential.

  • A commitment to continuous personal and professional development.

Why Volunteer With Us?
This is a rewarding opportunity to make a real difference to a charity that is transforming the lives of children and young people. As Head of HR, you will play a key role in shaping the organisation’s culture and helping us build a strong, sustainable team. We offer flexibility with remote working and provide the chance to engage in impactful work that aligns with your professional HR experience while contributing to a meaningful cause.

By volunteering with Children With Voices, you will gain valuable experience and have the opportunity to network with like-minded professionals while making a tangible difference.

About us

ProVeg International is a food awareness organisation working to transform the global food system by replacing 50% of animal products globally with plant-based and cultivated foods by 2040.

ProVeg engages with all relevant stakeholders to create a food system where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet.

ProVeg has received the United Nations’ Momentum for Change Award and works closely with key UN food and environment agencies. 

ProVeg creates global impact, with offices in 15 countries across five continents and more than 220 employees.

In the UK, our focus is on public sector food. Through our School Plates programme, we support major school caterers in their transition to healthier and more sustainable school menus. Since its launch in 2018, we’ve supported over 90 major school caterers, responsible for the food in over 8,000 schools, feeding over 1.3 million children every day, helping almost 50 million school meals become meat-free or plant-based. We plan to launch a sister programme in the healthcare sector, Hospital Plates, later this year.

Do you share our passion for transforming the food system? Are you impact driven and prefer to take a pragmatic approach? And do you have the skills and experience to help us? Then we’d love to hear from you!

Board Competencies 

We’re looking for a new Board member who can demonstrate the following personal characteristics and behaviours:

• Respects and internalises the principles of accountability

• Makes informed judgement

• Listens actively with an open mind

• Participates in debate, providing relevant comments

• Speaks own mind candidly but respectfully

• Demonstrates initiative and insightfulness

• Thinks both logically and creatively

• Makes decisions independently

• Advises from own experience base

• Teams with others, forming collaborative relationships with other Board members and, where appropriate, providing guidance and advice to staff

Meetings

The Board aims to hold around four Board Meetings per year (generally 1.5 hours per meeting, although subject to change, as necessary). Meetings are usually held virtually, although we now aim to hold one in-person meeting per year, and it is expected that Board Members read the necessary board materials prior to each meeting.

Board positions carry no remuneration but travel and other out-of-pocket expenses will be reimbursed. In return for your contribution, we offer the chance to work with and on behalf of people who are passionate in their commitment to our Mission and are constantly inspiring in their energy and creativity to achieve positive change.

The Role of the Board

In line with ProVeg International's Mission, Vision and Guiding Principles, the ProVeg C.I.C. Board is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction of ProVeg in the UK, and monitoring delivery by the Director and their staff. The Board members of ProVeg C.I.C play a critical role in acting as a check and balance for the organisation, giving strategic direction, and acting as a sounding board for strategy and priorities as required. Board members can typically help an organisation with their skills and experience, their networks and/or by other means. The Board member will work closely with the Senior Leadership Team of ProVeg C.I.C. and work closely and harmoniously alongside the International Board to support joined up and unified global strategic delivery of objectives. 

Duties

Board members are bound by a combination of statutory duties and organisational duties:

• Ensure that ProVeg C.I.C. complies with its governing document, company law, and any other relevant legislation or regulations 

• Board members agree to contribute the necessary time to effectively govern ProVeg C.I.C. in the UK.  (The total commitment tends to be around 4h per quarter, but is subject to change in line with necessary duties)

• Ensure that ProVeg C.I.C. pursues its objects as defined in its governing document

• Ensure ProVeg C.I.C. uses its resources exclusively in pursuance of its objects: ProVeg C.I.C must not spend money on activities which are not included in its own objects, no matter how worthwhile or charitable those activities are

• Contribute actively to the Board in giving firm strategic direction to ProVeg C.I.C, setting overall policy, defining goals and setting targets and evaluating performance against agreed targets

• Safeguard the good name and values of ProVeg C.I.C.

• Manage conflicts of interests

• Ensure the effective and efficient administration of ProVeg C.I.C. 

• Ensure the financial stability of ProVeg C.I.C.

• Protect and manage the property of the organisation and to ensure the proper investment of the organisation’s funds

• Monitor the performance of the Director, UK (and if required, appoint the role)
   

Board Member Person Specification

Essential:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent with relevant business, Community Interest Company, or Charity experience

• Commitment to and willingness to work in accordance with ProVeg International’s principles and values

• Willingness to devote the necessary time and effort to effectively fulfil the role of Director

• An ability to have strategic vision in line with available market factors and resource

• A history of proven good, independent judgement

• Ability to think creatively

• Willingness to speak their mind professionally and respectfully

• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively across all levels, such as Board, Senior Leadership Team, Staff and Volunteers 

• Knowledge of good governance practice

• Solid understanding and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of Directors. 

• Ability to work effectively as a member of a team

• Willingness to adhere to ProVeg International’s Director’s Code of Conduct 

• Eligible under Company Law to be a Board Director (e.g. not barred from taking up such positions)

• Follows a plant-based lifestyle 

Desirable:

• Senior Management/Executive experience

• Salaried or Board experience in a similar organisation 

We specifically seek great board members with expertise or assets in one or more of the following areas:

• Fundraising and income generation

• Government/policy or B2B sector including food services

• Legal

• A network of influencers and ambassadors

• People & Culture

Diversity Statement
ProVeg is committed to equal employment, volunteering and governance opportunity for all, regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, age, national origin or ancestry, refugee background, genetic information, disability, marital status, parental status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, HIV status, gender identity, or gender expression. People of colour, women, people with disabilities, people from LGBTQIA+ communities, elderly people, refugees and people living with HIV are strongly encouraged to apply.

Are you keen to move the arts forward? Are you passionate about the role the arts can play in building a better society? Do you think that diverse voices deserve to be heard through poetry? Do you want to be an empowering advocate for poetry’s transformative power? Forward Arts Foundation – the charity behind National Poetry Day and the Forward Prizes for Poetry – is looking for a new Chair and Trustees to join its board. We’re a small, ambitious team working nationally and online to celebrate poetry, support new voices, and widen accessibility. With a reach of over 2.4 million people each year, we’re looking for board members who can help us grow and govern well. We're particularly keen to hear from prospective Chairs and Trustees with experience in education, digital, fundraising and philanthropy, or governance and leadership. We’d also welcome the chance to support people under the age of 30 take their first step into trusteeship. Our meetings are flexible, online-friendly, and inclusive by design. Poetry is for everyone – and we want our board to reflect that.
 

About Us

For three decades, Forward Arts Foundation (‘Forward’) has been at the forefront of new poetry and now reaches an estimated 131 million people each year.  We are a national charity working across the UK and online to widen poetry’s audience, honour achievement and support diverse talent. Through our two flagship programmes, Forward Prizes for Poetry and National Poetry Day, we work towards a better society where individuals and communities can develop their innate creativity, their agency and their understanding through the making and sharing of poetry. 

Leadership and Management

Forward is led by its board of eight Trustees, chaired by Jamie Andrews. Jamie is Director of Public Engagement at the British Library and brings extensive experience as a trustee of several charities, including Oxford House. Other trustees are Forward’s founder William Sieghart CBE, responsible for the 2013 Sieghart Report on libraries and e-books; Kim Evans, former senior executive at BBC and Arts Council; Aoife O’Connor, poet and producer; Amelia Richards, culture and communications leader; treasurer and CFO Latinka Pilipovic; marketing manager Maya Ophelia and data scientist Mary Amanuel.

The organisation is led by Mónica Parle and Lucy Macnab, Co-Executive Directors.   Both have experience as directors of writing organisations (First Story and Ministry of Stories). Mónica is an award winning writer and Lucy brings national policy and strategy design experience from Arts Council England. With joint accountability, they each work 0.5FTE. The team also includes Jay Bhadricha, Head of Programmes, and Annalise Peters, Finance and Operations Coordinator. 

The team is supported by freelance specialists in education, communications, finance and fundraising. 

We believe poetry is for everyone. Our approach to recruiting trustees is shaped by a commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion. We particularly welcome applications for vacancies from D/deaf and disabled and black and minority ethnic candidates, as well as candidates from lower socio-economic backgrounds, as they are under-represented in the arts, and we commit to review our processes to ensure that our organisation more closely reflects the society it serves.

Chair Role

The Chair leads the board, ensuring that it governs the charity effectively, in service of the charity’s vision and mission. The Chair leads in an inclusive way, supporting the board to work together well, and providing support and challenge to the Chief Executive. The Chair is also an ambassador for the charity.  

1. Provide strategic leadership to the charity and the Board.
2. Work in partnership with the Co-Executive Directors and Vice Chair.
3. Lead the board in ensuring that it fulfils its responsibilities for the governance of the organisation.
4. Plan and chair the board meetings with the Vice Chair and Co-Executive Directors.
5. Act as a spokesperson and figurehead for Forward.

What we are looking for 

1. Experience of being a trustee. You do not need to have been a Chair before.
2. A keen sense of strategic purpose. 
3. An inclusive leadership style: able to inspire and support everyone to participate on an equal footing. 
4. The ability to listen and engage effectively. You are comfortable with challenge and debate and are able to encourage that in others whilst fostering a collaborative board environment. 
5. Advocate - be able and willing to champion Forward’s work through personal networks, social media, and other channels.
6. A strong personal commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. 
7. Be responsive. At a small charity, things sometimes ‘come up’ that require the Chair to advise, support or give consent to. It is very helpful to have a Chair who is available and responsive.

Trustee roles 

We are also looking for trustees with expertise in any of the below and a belief that your skills will contribute to the strong and effective governance and growth of a small charity. We are especially looking for experience and networks in: 

• Fundraising or philanthropy
• Governance/institutional/policy leadership
• Digital/data/design
• Education
• We’re also interested in applications from those under 30 or those seeking their first trusteeship, and offer support and guidance from an experienced ‘buddy’ trustee.
• Ideally, applicants should show interest in or understanding of the literature/arts sector and/or literacy and education.

Responsibilities of all trustees 

• Support and provide advice on Forward’s purpose, vision, goals and activities. 
• Approve operational strategies and policies, and monitor and evaluate their implementation.
• Oversee Forward’s financial plans and budgets and monitor and evaluate progress. 
• Ensure that key risks are being identified, monitored and controlled effectively.
• Provide support and challenge to Forward’s Co-Executive Directors 
• Keep abreast of changes in Forward’s operating environment.
• Applying your skills, expertise, knowledge and contacts to promote Forward’s work.

Essential qualities and attributes of all trustees 

• Willingness and ability to understand and accept their responsibilities and liabilities as  trustees and to act in the best interests of the organisation.
• Ability to think creatively and strategically, exercise good, independent judgement and work effectively as a board member.
• Effective communication skills and willingness to participate actively in discussion. 
• A strong personal commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
• Enthusiasm for our vision and mission.
• Willingness to lead according to our values of wonder, play and openness.
• Commitment to Nolan’s seven principles of public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership

Terms and Commitment 

Location: All board meetings may be attended online. We will try to meet face-to-face when we can. But trustees are welcome wherever they live.  

We estimate you’ll need to commit around 30 hours over the course of a year. The board meets quarterly and we have a strategy day one afternoon a year. Trustees are appointed for a 3-year term, with a maximum of 2 terms.

Salary: Unpaid, travel expenses will be reimbursed if needed and where necessary.

Deadline for applications: 21 July

Interviews beginning w/c 28 July

To apply or find out more, contact Co-Executive Director Lucy Macnab explaining why you would like to be a trustee. If you are interested in being Chair, please make this clear. You may want to tell us what your previous experience is, and what knowledge and skills you have and what you would like to gain from the experience. Also someone we can talk to as a referee. We will accept applications in any medium.

For those applying for the chair role, you are welcome to have a call with Jamie Andrews, current chair, to find out more.

Forward Arts Foundation is a registered charity (charity number: 1037939) and a company limited by guarantee (company no: 02902864), registered in England and Wales.

This role is advertised as part of TPP's Free Giving Back Services. This volunteer advertisement copy has been supplied to TPP and applicants apply direct to the organisation. Please contact the organisation directly if you have any questions about this volunteer role.