Victim support volunteer roles in Manchester, greater manchester

It’s an exciting time to join Victim Support, as we prepare to begin delivery of the Witness Service from April 2026. We look forward to welcoming current Witness Service staff and volunteers to Victim Support — and we’re also now beginning recruitment for several new roles and to fill vacant positions.  

The Witness Service provides free, independent support to any witness giving evidence in criminal courts in England and Wales — both for the prosecution and the defence.  

Our trained staff and volunteers help people understand what to expect before, during and after a trial, and offer practical and emotional support every step of the way, so witnesses can give their best evidence.   

The Witness Service also supports bereaved family members, and friends and family who are accompanying witnesses in court.

This is an exceptional opportunity to help us ensure a smooth transition and shape a high-quality, high-impact and trauma-informed service — so every witness feels informed, supported and more confident in court.  

Witness Service Outreach Volunteers provide support to witnesses when they are attending court, as well as pre-trial and post-trial helping them to feel safe and informed. You will provide support to both prosecution and defence witnesses.

Why volunteer with us?

• Make a difference - you will volunteer directly with victims and witnesses.

• Gain skills and experience - you will receive training on how to provide practical and emotional support.

• Join our community - you will be part of a large community of over 2,000 volunteers and staff. 

• Beyond your role – attend one of our many events/webinars and join one of our six Equality, Diversity & Inclusion networks.

What do we ask of you? 

In order to join us as a Witness Service Volunteer, you must: 

• Be 18 years of age or over. 

• Be able to volunteer for at least 1 day per week, for at least 12 months. 

• Undertake training – this includes virtual training days as well as completing online learning modules. 

• Undertake an Enhanced DBS with Child Barred List check & be part of the DBS Update Service.

• Be able to provide two satisfactory references. 

• Have an active email address that you are comfortable using in order to engage with VS communications. 

Diversity Matters 

• VS strives to represent the diverse communities we serve and are passionate about creating an environment where all staff and volunteers feel respected and heard. Being a diverse organisation with an inclusive culture is integral to us being able to meet our aim of ensuring that anyone who is a victim of crime gets the support they need. 

• VS is also a Disability Confident Employer and we provide a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for candidates that are disabled and meet all essential criteria for a role. 

• We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to support you through the application process. 

Welcome and Reception Support Volunteer

Bilingual / Multilingual

As a Welcome and Reception support volunteer, you will be an invaluable part of the Manchester Hub team, supporting the hub to deliver vital frontline services. You'll be the first point of contact for clients and visitors, assisting the administration team with reception duties, and supporting the operation of the Shelter office in their day-to-day business 

You’ll act as the first point of contact for our clients, help to understand their needs and help them access necessary support through the duty or appointment services. Being a positive presence in hubs to ensure visitors feel comfortable and welcomed.

This role is an opportunity to make a real difference to the individuals we support. You’ll be developing your own knowledge and skills to support local people with a range of housing issues as well as providing practical support with form filling and providing a friendly, listening ear. You will gain experience of volunteering within a recognised national housing charity, while supporting your local community. 

Suggested Involvement: Approximately one day per week (can be more & can be flexible around your commitments) 

Availability: This volunteering opportunity will take place within our working hours, Monday-Friday, 9am – 5pm 

Location: Shelter Manchester Hub, Unit 3, Great North Tower, 5 Watson St, Manchester M3 4EE 

Supervised by: Office Administrator

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Why volunteer with Shelter? 

A home is a fundamental human need, as vital as education or healthcare. But in Britain today, that right is denied to millions of people whose lives are blighted by homelessness, bad housing conditions, soaring rents, discrimination and the threat of eviction. The time for change is now.

As a Welcome and Reception Support Volunteer, you’ll be supporting the day-to-day work of Shelter’s housing advisors as they provide advice, support and guidance to the people visiting the Manchester Hub. 

Volunteers are essential to Shelter’s mission to end housing injustice. We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds. The insights and life experience our volunteers bring to Shelter are valued as much as their contribution through volunteering. 

We aim to provide our volunteers with a positive experience. This is by prioritising accessibility and tailoring the support we provide to the needs of the individual. We make sure our policies and processes are equitable, which means that no-one is unfairly disadvantaged while volunteering because of their background or identity. 

Main Tasks include 

• Cover reception and greeting people who come to the office. 

• Communicating with clients via phone and email to share updates on their case and to gather information. 

• Assisting clients with form filling, paperwork and applications around housing and benefits. 

• Supporting clients with digital skills, for example navigating online systems and forms. 

• Signposting clients to relevant services and providing useful information. 

• General administrative tasks (e.g. minute-taking, photocopying, scanning, and filing). 

Skills and experience required 

• Fluent in English and one of the following languages: Urdu, Arabic, Tigrinya, Kurdish Sorani 

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to understand the needs of our clients 

• Interest in social welfare law, e.g. housing; welfare benefits; debt; community care 

• The ability to work as part of a team and value and communicate effectively with others

• Confident using Microsoft Office, including Outlook, Excel and PDF documents to a good standard 

• Willingness to follow Shelter’s policies, including volunteering, health & safety, equality & diversity, confidentiality & data protection 

To enable you take part in this opportunity Shelter will

• Provide a volunteer pack including a Handbook and all Policies and Procedures. 

• Provide an induction into your role.  

• Provide access to our learning on data protection, safeguarding and screen wellness as well as other appropriate role specific training. 

• Reimburse “out of pocket” expenses in line with Shelter’s volunteer expenses policy. 

Benefits of Volunteering with Shelter 

• Supporting Shelter in our fight against bad housing and homelessness. 

• Gain valuable work experience and enhance your CV. 

• Meet new people and be part of a great team. 

• Build your confidence and develop transferable skills. 

Next steps 

Please complete an online application for this role.

Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to a recruitment conversation to discuss the role further. 

Please note, upon offer of role, you will be asked to declare any unspent convictions and undergo a basic DBS check. Having a criminal record does not mean that you cannot volunteer with us. It may limit the different ways that you can get involved, but please contact us if you require more information. 

This is a voluntary position that supports the work of our services and is not replacing the work of a paid member of staff. This role profile does not form part of any contract of employment.

Calling all creatives! If you are great with words, images and ideas, and want to find a flexible, regular, voluntary opportunity with a great small charity - we'd love to hear from you!

Criminal justice charity Belong: Making Justice Happen is looking for a Communications and Influencing Volunteer to join our friendly team and play their part in helping to make our vision of a society where there is hope, rehabilitation and recovery for victims and perpetrators of crime, a reality. This role is vital in ensuring we are telling our story and sharing the impact of our work with the world. It will assist Belong in working towards our goal of helping to develop a fairer, more effective, and more humane criminal justice system.

Supported by Belong’s Operational and Senior Leadership Team, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to develop creative content that highlight Belong’s key messages and promote change across our three policy objectives whereby we seek to promote:

1. Increased, higher quality support in communities engaging people who have offended, been victims of crime or who are at risk of offending or victimisation.
2. Fairer sentencing with equal, non-discriminatory application.
3. Reduced trauma and harm in prisons enabling greater productivity and rehabilitation amongst people serving prison sentences.

Place of work: Home-based

Hours of work: Flexible, depending on availability, between 2 – 4 hours per week. 

Supported By: Belong’s Operations and Finance Administrator, Head of Programmes and the CEO

Tasks

• Creating high quality, engaging content, such as graphics, written pieces, audio and video, for use in press releases, as well as across Belong’s website and social media platforms.
• Keeping up to date with social media posts and news pieces relevant to Belong’s work in the criminal justice sector, to help generate ideas for use towards press releases, and in social media and website content.
• Using ideas and information from Belong’s operational, front-line team to help generate ideas for social media and website content.
• Using Canva and any other relevant design tools to design graphics.
• Using our social media scheduling software Loomly to plan the week’s content across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin.
• Taking part in fortnightly to monthly meetings to help plan and develop the effective and creative communication of Belong’s charitable work and policy messaging.
• Helping us keep in the loop with our industry by engaging with partners and peers online.
• Supporting on developing specialist campaigns.

 What support will you be offered?

As part of your role we will provide you with full training, support and supervision. You will have the opportunity to meet and to work with other likeminded people who share Belong’s values of restoration, respect, inspiration, perseverance and empowerment. Belong’s administrator will be on-hand to assist with planning and sign off over email, as well as via catch ups over video call. Belong’s administrator and senior management will take part alongside you in monthly meetings to plan and develop Belong’s communications and policy influencing work.

What difference will you make?

Volunteering with Belong will give you the opportunity to use and develop your skills and make a real difference to building safer communities. You will be contributing to our growth and development, which in turn will enable us to reach a greater number of individuals, and change futures for the better, by:

• Raising awareness of Belong and our policy objectives via digital platforms. This will be measured via our annual report and monthly communications and policy influencing meetings.
• Improving press and media engagement with Belong’s work and policy objectives
• Building networks/relationships with other relevant organisations, including professionals/funders/corporates.
• Increasing followers across all platforms, with the aim of increasing the general support for Belong and engagement with our policy objectives.
• Increasing donations in accordance with priorities set out in Belong’s funding strategy, e.g. individual giving and will legacies via traffic from our social media.

If you’re seeking experience in this field or want to put your existing skills to a good cause, we’d love to hear from you. Please send us a CV and cover letter outlining a bit about why you are interested in the role and what you could do to take Belong’s communications and influencing work to the next level.  

Deadline: 24 April 2026

Interviews: 6 May 2026

Post to start: ASAP

NAPAC (the National Association for People Abused in Childhood) provides emotional support to adult survivors of all types of childhood abuse; including physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect.

We offer empathy, validation, normalisation, understanding and care to our callers. We also assist survivors in finding longer term or local support, utilising common coping and grounding mechanisms, as well as signposting to other services who may be able to provide additional support.

Our service is vital as many survivors of childhood abuse continue to be negatively impacted by their experiences into adulthood – from complex post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders and depression amongst other challenges.

It doesn’t have to be this way – this is the chance for you to change someone’s life for the better. We are seeking empathetic and resilient Volunteer Call Handlers to join our friendly team in Stockport.

Volunteer Call Handlers answer calls to NAPAC’s primary survivor support service – the telephone support line, so being confident speaking on the telephone is essential.

Due to the nature of the role, we require our volunteers to be above the age of 21.

Our volunteers at NAPAC are part of a unique, welcoming team where they receive 1:1 support from those around them. Volunteers will receive a 5-week training course (4×3-hour sessions plus a shadowing week).

Volunteer recruitment is ongoing with courses running every couple of months. Here you will receive specialist trauma-informed training and be fully equipped with the skills you need to feel confident in supporting survivors. Volunteers are also invited to attend our twice-yearly training days where we host guest speakers from other relevant organisations. Our volunteers play a crucial role supporting survivors and make a real difference to someone’s life with every call.