Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Based right in the heart of the city, Shopmobility is a vital and much loved service for all of our customers. A place where they know they will be listened to, treated with dignity and provided with the best assistance we can offer them, to live their lives independently.
Equal Lives is a user led Disabled People's Organisation and we're really proud of Shopmobility! It's the part of our organisation which is people facing, the part where our staff and volunteers get to represent us and interact with our customers on a daily basis. So, it's vital that we have the right people on hand and that's where you come in!
If you've got a passion to help the Disabled community by empowering them to live the life they deserve, then you're our kind of person. We're looking for those compassionate individuals who want to help others, who are happy to give a few minutes to listen to someone's story, to ask how their day was and to support them in working out the best solutions to suit their needs.
Shopmobility is a scheme that supports people to hire mobility aids during their visit to the city. We're based in Chantry Place (previously Chapelfield Shopping Centre) and we are looking for volunteers to help with all aspects of the day-to-day running of the shop.This is a great opportunity to volunteer, build your skills and meet new people!
Role overview:
As is typical of working with the community, no one day is the same. As such, the role may include, but is not limited to:
- Opening the site ready for business and helping to prepare the shop
- Closing the shop at the end of the day
- Greeting customers and acting as a friendly, supportive and welcoming face
- Supporting customers to work out what they need, and to hire the equipmen
- Keeping the site looking presentable and welcoming
- Handling cash and taking card payments
- Supporting people to sign up as Shopmobility members and to join Equal Lives as members
- Responding to queries on social media, email and telephone
- Taking future bookings for the equipment
- Cleaning and maintenance of vehicles when they’re returned
- Marketing and promoting the shop
- Some other occasional ad hoc tasks as required
We’ll give you:
- Comprehensive training, including Customer Service, GDPR, Safeguarding and Data Protection
- The opportunity to choose your days and hours (within our opening times of Tuesday to Friday)
- An accessible city centre location
- A variety of activities to challenge you and develop your skills
- The opportunity to take on additional responsibilities as you gain experience
- Specific tasks focusing on the skills you want to gain
- A friendly and supportive team of staff and volunteers
- A mapped out plan of personal development to help you evidence your professional progression
You will be doing really important work with this role, supporting those with mobility issues access the City to lead more independent lives. This opportunity gives you a fantastic chance to learn and develop great transferable skills.
If you are looking for a volunteer role which gives you the chance to make a real difference to people's lives, this role could be for you.
Volunteering Arrangements
The site will follow the COVID19 safety guidelines and volunteers will be reimbursed reasonable expenses incurred whilst supporting us.
All volunteers are required to undertake our core training programme. This covers basic safeguarding and other key features, such as data protection.
New volunteers will have an opportunity to ‘shadow’ experienced volunteers and members of staff
Potentially, depending on the candidate, there may be additional opportunities to participate in a variety of accredited training courses. Please ask a manager for further details.
Volunteers are required to adhere to the organisation’s policies and practice guidelines.
Reasonable expenses, including travel whilst undertaking this role will be reimbursed. This includes mileage (currently £0.45 p/mile) and parking costs.
Person specification
- Honesty
- An ability to be empathic, whilst maintaining professional boundaries
- Reliability, and only committing to a level of volunteering which is realistic
- Good interpersonal skills
- The ability to be non-judgemental
- Good verbal and written communication skills
- Excellent listening skills
- Commitment to attend training courses and team meetings
- Ability to follow organisational policies and procedures including safeguarding, data protection and health and safety
- Dedicated to the empowerment of Disabled people
Registered Charity
21 - 50
We strive to remove disabling barriers, empowering Disabled people to have choice and control in their lives.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Do you want to support the running of the charity that supports people in Berkshire’s hospitals?
Are you the person to develop and lead our business opportunities planning, alongside our existing trustees?
You could join the Board of the Friends of Berkshire Hospitals, a charity that improves the experience of patients, visitors, medical staff and others who work in the Royal Berkshire and Wokingham Hospitals.
Our charity grew from a Reading-only organisation set up in 1957, which itself grew from a charitable group in the 1940s. We’re now serving both Reading and Wokingham hospitals, and intend to expand our services and thus our charitable business even further: to better serve all those in the hospitals. Our expenditure in 2024 was £366k, and we have plans to expand our business and fundraising operations outside of hospital premises.
The role and what we are looking for in a new trustee
Trustees are the people who make the top-level decisions for our charity. Our Board includes people with experience and skills in the services we provide to those in hospitals, and we’d expect new trustees to have empathy with our cause and our beneficiaries.
We are looking for experience of developing a business, not necessarily in the not-for-private-profit sector, identifying new opportunities and relationships, creating and implementing our new marketing strategy.
We are a charity not a business, but we apply business principles to governing our organisation. We are looking for people from a variety of backgrounds to join our charity. We want to expand the diversity of our board, in all meanings of the word, and strongly welcome applications from people from less-represented groups.
You don’t necessarily need prior experience of charity trusteeship, as full induction to our organisation will be provided, plus specialist support as a new trustee, including access to external training.
If you can think strategically and plan long-term, you have the primary skills needed by our trustees; you’ll also need to be able to work collectively with other Board members.
Trustees are not be expected to get involved in the organisation’s operations on a day-to-day basis; however, regular contact and liaison with other trustees and employees is expected.
We ask for no more than ten hours of your time per month, which includes all meetings, discussions, etc. You will need access to digital communications, as much of our charity’s business is run that way.
How to apply
This appointment is being managed for us by inVOLve Community Services, a charity-support organisation, who offer a no-obligation discussion by phone or video. A detailed Role Description and Skills Specification is available.
Trustee appointments are subject to satisfactory references.
Your CV or similar will be read by our existing trustees, and an interview offered as soon as mutually convenient.
I need to know more
Contact Mike Allen via Apply Now, below, for more information and arrange to have a no-obligation initial informal discussion (Teams or Zoom)
