Charity manager volunteer roles

Ready to step out of your comfort zone, travel with true purpose, and change young lives? Join our close-knit team in beautiful Ghana to inspire eager students, bridge vital educational gaps, and experience an unforgettable cultural immersion.

At SFLIG Volunteers, we don't believe in standard, sterile office jobs—we believe in human connection. In many of our partner communities just outside Accra, local classrooms are overflowing, and passionate teachers are stretched thin. They don't just need an extra pair of hands; they need your unique energy, your background, and your global perspective to help open up the world for their students.

This is your opportunity to break away from the everyday routine, build unmatched international leadership skills, and see the tangible, smiling results of your hard work every single morning.

Your Typical Day in the Classroom

This role is active, vibrant, and highly collaborative. You won’t just be sitting at a desk; you will be an active spark in the school community:

• The Co-Pilot: Work hand-in-hand with local headteachers to make core subjects like English conversation, basic Mathematics, and General Sciences come alive through interactive games and discussions.

• The Creative Spark: Bring your own hobbies across the globe! Whether you love drawing, music, painting, or sports, you will design and lead engaging workshops that build child confidence and creativity.

• The Mentor: Provide crucial, patient one-on-one reading and arithmetic support to bright children who have fallen behind and just need someone to believe in them.

Who You Are

We care far more about your heart, your drive, and your empathy than a piece of paper. You are the perfect fit if:

• You have a deep-seated desire to travel, explore new cultures respectfully, and give back to grassroots communities.

• You are patient, highly adaptable, and ready to embrace a vibrant, slow-paced, and welcoming new environment.

• No formal teaching qualifications or TEFL certificates are required. We provide all the training and tools; you just need to bring the enthusiasm!

The SFLIG Experience: What's Included

We treat our international volunteers like family from the moment they apply:

• Total Support Network: From your comprehensive pre-departure prep to airport pickup and local orientation, our dedicated team guides you every step of the way.

• The Perfect Work-Life Balance: Your projects run Monday through Friday, giving you long weekends to explore Ghana’s beautiful coastal beaches, historic forts, and bustling local markets with your fellow volunteers.

• True 'Akwaaba' Hospitality: Live and work safely embedded within an authentic Ghanaian community, building lifelong global friendships.

Whether you’re a jobseeker interested in a career in construction or woodwork, a student or recent college graduate seeking experience, or just someone with spare time on your hands, wanting to do something positive and meet new people, volunteering with the Touch Wood project at EMERGE 3Rs may be just the ticket!

Touch Wood is a wood recycling and upcycling initiative, which collects surplus and waste wood and timber and gives it a new lease of life, preventing it from being burned, chipped, or dumped in landfill.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

* Preparing wood for resale

* Assisting with the construction of wooden products, from small household items to pieces of furniture

Our Touch Wood volunteers are able to gain skills in practical woodworking, as we offer hands-on experience of working with reclaimed timber; from making basic lumber products ready for resale, through to assisting with the creation of bespoke items, such as kitchen equipment and home and garden furniture.

Full training in woodworking and health and safety is provided, along with Personal Protection Equipment.
Capped reimbursement of expenses is awarded for lunches and travel, where applicable.

The UK generates around 5 million tonnes of wood waste every year, but less than 1% is reused. Touch Wood rescues waste timber that would otherwise be landfilled or turned into woodchip; creating jobs and training opportunities for disadvantaged local people at the same time. We collect from construction sites, industrial estates and other commercial sources, reclaiming everything from pallets to indoor cycle tracks – you name it, we take it! Anything we can’t reuse is locally recycled, so nothing goes to waste. This reduces the carbon emissions associated with disposing of waste wood, offers cost savings for DIY enthusiasts, and provides training and job potential to volunteers in the workshop. Some of the timber we work with comes from high profile sources, including the entire track of the Manchester Velodrome cycling centre and wood removed in the recent refurbishment of Manchester’s historic Town Hall!

Our skilled team of staff and volunteers often use reclaimed timber to create beautiful and practical products, such as home and garden furniture. We regularly create bespoke pieces to order; some of it for famous clients like Olympic cycling champions Jason and Laura Kenny, for whom we made a table from the Manchester Velodrome track.

Please be advised that our volunteers require a fair level of physical fitness and manual dexterity as the role is entirely practical.

Our Touch Wood workshop and wood store is open Mon-Fri, 8.30am - 4pm.
We occupy a unit at Maynard House, inside New Smithfield Market, in Openshaw, North Manchester, which is accessed from the main entrance on Whitworth Street East (off Ashton Old Road). The site is served well by buses, and we have free parking onsite, as well as secure storage racks for pushbikes.

​IMPORTANT NOTE:
You must be resident in the UK and living in Greater Manchester, or within easy commuting distance of our base, in order to volunteer with us. There are no exceptions to this rule. This is because we require volunteers to be able to reliably commit to regular shifts for some of our roles. We are unable to offer sponsorship for overseas applicants.

Know someone else who might be interested in volunteering with us?
Please pass our details on to them as we always welcome new people on our teams. :)

Perinatal Support Volunteers provide one-to-one support to parents during pregnancy and up to nine months after the birth. These parents either have mental health issues or are at risk of developing them.

Perinatal Support Volunteers visit these families once a week (usually weekdays during working hours) for 2-3 hours, providing emotional support and practical help in the family’s home or local community. Support is aimed at empowering parents and building resilience beyond the support period.

The type of support Perinatal Support Volunteers provide to parents may include:

• An empathetic and non-judgemental listening ear
• Support to prepare for parenthood
• Support to build confidence in parenting skills
• Support to develop a positive relationship with their infant
• Support to establish daily and weekly routines
• Support to take time for self-care
• Support to manage the things that are causing stress
• Support to access relevant services
• Support to access local green spaces
• Support to make connections with other parents

No special qualifications are necessary to become a Perinatal Support Volunteer, but Home-Start volunteers are usually either parents or grandparents themselves, or people with experience of young children and family life. We particularly welcome volunteers with lived experience of perinatal mental health challenges.

Are you a parent, grandparent or have experience of caring for children?

Do you have 2-3 hours per week to spare? Use your experience to support a family facing challenging times.

Our Home-Visiting Service supports families who are experiencing difficulties or suffering stress and who have at least one child under the age of five years.

Our aims are:

To increase the confidence and independence of the family by:

Offering support, friendship and practical assistance

Visiting families in their own homes and in their community, where the dignity and identity of each adult and child can be respected and protected

Reassuring parents that difficulties in bringing up children is not unusual and encouraging them to enjoy family life.

Developing a relationship with the family in which time can be shared and understanding can be developed. This approach is flexible to take account of different needs.

Encouraging parents’ strengths and emotional wellbeing – for the ultimate benefit of their children.

Encouraging families to widen their network of relationships, and to effectively use the support and services available within the community.