Volunteer roles in Hornchurch

Dive into lasting impact: Fundraise for East London Waterworks Park to create and shape natural swimming ponds, ecological habitats and community gardens

East London Waterworks Park is a volunteer-led charity that has won a 2024 New London Architecture award and raised £2m towards buying land from the Department for Education to transform the 14-acre Thames Water Depot on Lea Bridge Road on the border of Waltham Forest and Hackney, into a new biodiverse park with natural swimming ponds, forest schools and community spaces. 

Do you have experience organising events, or would you like to get some? Our past fundraising activities have included pub quizzes, a photography competition and exhibition, sale of locally made jeans and more. If you’re buzzing with ideas of how to raise money or are keen to get stuck in and help to make some events happen, we would love to hear from you.

The Fundraising Circle currently meets fortnightly on a Thursday evening on Google Meet and spends voluntary time outside of the meeting completing agreed tasks remotely. We understand that people may not have a lot of time to give, so we want to find volunteers who could give us one-off or ongoing strategic advice and support.

East London Waterworks Park is an exciting and ambitious project that offers many rewarding opportunities for our volunteers. You will have a significant impact on the creation of a new biodiverse community-owned park with free access natural swimming ponds and forest schools. 

By leading fundraising projects that explore how diverse professionals (architects, ecologists, web developers, community researchers etc.) collaborate to shape community infrastructure, volunteers will directly contribute to the development of a park that truly reflects the needs and desires of the local community. 

Without funding we won’t be able to make it happen. Your input will help us craft experiences that inspire, educate, and engage our service users, stakeholders, funders, and the general public, ultimately driving support for the park's mission and ensuring its long-term sustainability. So you will be directly contributing to the creation of a new biodiverse community-owned park with free access natural swimming ponds.

Are you interested in facilitating a peer support group for people who are struggling with their mental health? We are looking for passionate volunteers to facilitate a weekly online or face-to-face group, to discuss topics relating to mental health. We are hoping to find someone who has either ‘lived experience’ of mental health issues and is now at a positive place with their own recovery or someone who has good knowledge of mental health and looking to support others.

What you will be doing

• Facilitating weekly peer support groups, covering topics related to mental health.
• Promote a safe, confidential, and non-judgmental atmosphere where all members feel valued and heard
• Encourage mutual support, active listening, and shared problem-solving within the group
• Manage group dynamics sensitively, ensuring discussions remain constructive and inclusive
• Collaborate with staff to monitor group wellbeing and escalate any concerns appropriately
• Assist in planning and preparing for each session, including topic prompts or themes if needed
• Maintain confidentiality in line with organisational policies and safeguarding standards.

The skills you need

• Lived experience of mental health challenges is highly valued and can be a strong foundation for this role
• Good communication and active listening skills
• Ability to facilitate group discussions with empathy and patience
• Understanding of boundaries and confidentiality in a mental health context.
• A non-judgmental, supportive, and encouraging attitude
• Experience in peer support or group facilitation is an advantage but not essential; training will be provided

What's in it for you

• Supporting You - You will have a dedicated volunteer supervisor to support you in your role; Quarterly volunteer forums with the central Volunteering team and volunteers across Hestia; References for job applications
• Developing You - You will gain knowledge and insight into issues that impact Domestic Abuse, Modern Slavery and Mental Health; You will have access to our extensive Learning and Development Programme; 40% of our departed volunteers secured a paid role at Hestia last year!
• Valuing You - Valuing You - We hold annual Volunteer Awards, outings, celebration, and social events for our volunteers to get together and have some fun; We reimburse travel expenses and up to £5 for lunch for your volunteering.

Monitoring, evaluation and learning coordinators wanted to help East London Waterworks Park deliver its environmental learning goals. 

East London Waterworks Park is a volunteer-led charity that has won a 2024 New London Architecture award and raised £2m towards buying land from the Department for Education to transform the 14-acre Thames Water Depot on Lea Bridge Road on the border of Waltham Forest and Hackney, into a new biodiverse park with natural swimming ponds, forest schools and community spaces. 

We are looking for a volunteer to track the impact of our educational initiatives, gather data, and support continuous improvement in our learning programs. This role ensures that our learning activities are effective and contribute meaningfully to ELWP’s overarching goals.

This role would include:

• Developing measures of success of existing environmental education initiatives
• Collecting and analyzing feedback from programme participants
• Recommending improvements based on data insights

Schools, universities and youth groups we've collaborated with include:

• Waltham Forest College 
• Henry Maynard Primary School, Walthamstow
• Buxton School, Leytonstone
• Kingsmead Primary School, Hackney
• Daubeney Primary School, Hackney
• UCL 
• Royal College of Art
• University of Westminster 
• Project Zero
• Voyage Youth 
• Loyola University Chicago 
• Vanderbilt University Nashville

The Learning Circle currently meets monthly on a Wednesday evening at 8pm for an hour on Google Meet and spends voluntary time outside of the meeting completing agreed tasks remotely.

We're looking for people to lead on these projects and facilitate the direction of the learning working group.

Individuals with experience in research, programme evaluation, data analysis, or education assessment are encouraged to apply. Attention to detail and an interest in measuring impact will be key strengths in this role. Our roles are quite flexible. We hope that people bring radical imagination, peace with nature, and courageous inclusiveness to the role. 

Your support will help young people and learners improve their environmental knowledge of design and research as well as contributing to our community-owned park. This will in turn provide a sense of stewardship over the land once the park is created and student's ideas have been built into the park. Creating learning projects with educational institutions will also help our charity with the strategy to buy the land through showing the value of our environmental education programme before we create the park. 

You will have a significant impact on the creation of a new biodiverse community-owned park with free access natural swimming ponds. By volunteering in this role, you will help shape the future of East London Waterworks Park as a community-led environmental learning space. This  will also help our charity with the strategy to buy the land through showing the value of our environmental education programme before we create the park. If you’re interested in joining us, we’d love to hear from you!

Teachers and educational facilitators wanted to help East London Waterworks Park deliver its environmental learning goals.

East London Waterworks Park is a volunteer-led charity that has won a 2024 New London Architecture award and raised £2m towards buying land from the Department for Education to transform the 14-acre Thames Water Depot on Lea Bridge Road on the border of Waltham Forest and Hackney, into a new biodiverse park with natural swimming ponds, forest schools and community spaces. 

We are seeking experienced teachers and educational facilitators to lead workshops and deliver engaging environmental education sessions to children and young people. Sessions may take place at schools or around the perimeter of the site we want to transform into East London Waterworks Park.

This role would include:

• Leading hands-on outdoor learning workshops
• Delivering nature-based activities to school groups
• Supporting the creation of ELWP’s Under 18s volunteering policy
• Supporting outreach efforts to promote ELWP’s existing learning programmes

Schools, universities and youth groups we've collaborated with include:

• Waltham Forest College 
• Henry Maynard Primary School, Walthamstow
• Buxton School, Leytonstone
• Kingsmead Primary School, Hackney
• Daubeney Primary School, Hackney
• UCL 
• Royal College of Art
• University of Westminster 
• Project Zero
• Voyage Youth 
• Loyola University Chicago 
• Vanderbilt University Nashville

We're looking for people to lead on these projects and facilitate the direction of the learning working group.

The Learning Circle currently meets monthly on a Wednesday evening at 8pm for an hour on Google Meet and spends voluntary time outside of the meeting completing agreed tasks remotely

You should be an experienced teacher, educational consultant, forest school leader, training and development specialist, learning designer, facilitator or any other kind of role creating learning projects, programmes and experiences. Our roles are quite flexible. We hope that people bring radical imagination, peace with nature, and courageous inclusiveness to the role. 

Your support will help young people and learners improve their environmental knowledge of design and research as well as contributing to our community-owned park. This will in turn provide a sense of stewardship over the land once the park is created and student's ideas have been built into the park. Creating learning projects with educational institutions will also help our charity with the strategy to buy the land through showing the value of our environmental education programme before we create the park. 

You will have a significant impact on the creation of a new biodiverse community-owned park with free access natural swimming ponds. By volunteering in this role, you will help shape the future of East London Waterworks Park as a community-led environmental learning space. This will also help our charity with the strategy to buy the land through showing the value of our environmental education programme before we create the park. If you’re interested in joining us, we’d love to hear from you!

Learning and curriculum designers wanted to help East London Waterworks Park deliver its environmental learning goals.

East London Waterworks Park is a volunteer-led charity that has won a 2024 New London Architecture award and raised £2m towards buying land from the Department for Education to transform the 14-acre Thames Water Depot on Lea Bridge Road on the border of Waltham Forest and Hackney, into a new biodiverse park with natural swimming ponds, forest schools and community spaces. 

We are looking for volunteers to develop learning content and resources, such as lesson plans and educational materials, to support our environmental learning goals. This role will focus on creating school-friendly resources for our website and collaborating with educators to enhance our offerings.

The role would include:

• Developing online learning resources for our website (on-going project)
• Designing or tailoring existing lesson plans and activities for schools 
• Supporting the creation of ELWP’s Under 18s volunteering policy
• Supporting outreach efforts to promote ELWP’s existing learning programmes

Schools, universities and youth groups we've collaborated with include:

• Waltham Forest College 
• Henry Maynard Primary School, Walthamstow
• Buxton School, Leytonstone
• Kingsmead Primary School, Hackney
• Daubeney Primary School, Hackney
• UCL 
• Royal College of Art
• University of Westminster 
• Project Zero
• Voyage Youth 
• Loyola University Chicago 
• Vanderbilt University Nashville

We're looking for people to lead on these projects and facilitate the direction of the learning working group.

The Learning Circle currently meets monthly on a Wednesday evening at 8pm for an hour on Google Meet and spends voluntary time outside of the meeting completing agreed tasks remotely.

Ideal candidates have experience in curriculum design, teaching, or educational resource development. Creativity, strong writing skills, and an understanding of outdoor or environmental education will be valuable. Our roles are quite flexible. We hope that people bring radical imagination, peace with nature, and courageous inclusiveness to the role.  

Your support will help young people and learners improve their environmental knowledge of design and research as well as contributing to our community-owned park. This will in turn provide a sense of stewardship over the land once the park is created and student's ideas have been built into the park. Creating learning projects with educational institutions will also help our charity with the strategy to buy the land through showing the value of our environmental education programme before we create the park. 

You will have a significant impact on the creation of a new biodiverse community-owned park with free access natural swimming ponds. By volunteering in this role, you will help shape the future of East London Waterworks Park as a community-led environmental learning space. This will also help our charity with the strategy to buy the land through showing the value of our environmental education programme before we create the park. If you’re interested in joining us, we’d love to hear from you!

Learning and curriculum designers wanted to help East London Waterworks Park deliver its environmental learning goals.

East London Waterworks Park is a volunteer-led charity that has won a 2024 New London Architecture award and raised £2m towards buying land from the Department for Education to transform the 14-acre Thames Water Depot on Lea Bridge Road on the border of Waltham Forest and Hackney, into a new biodiverse park with natural swimming ponds, forest schools and community spaces. 

We are looking for volunteers to develop learning content and resources, such as lesson plans and educational materials, to support our environmental learning goals. This role will focus on creating school-friendly resources for our website and collaborating with educators to enhance our offerings.

The role would include:

• Developing online learning resources for our website (on-going project)
• Designing or tailoring existing lesson plans and activities for schools 
• Supporting the creation of ELWP’s Under 18s volunteering policy
• Supporting outreach efforts to promote ELWP’s existing learning programmes

Schools, universities and youth groups we've collaborated with include:

• Waltham Forest College 
• Henry Maynard Primary School, Walthamstow
• Buxton School, Leytonstone
• Kingsmead Primary School, Hackney
• Daubeney Primary School, Hackney
• UCL 
• Royal College of Art
• University of Westminster 
• Project Zero
• Voyage Youth 
• Loyola University Chicago 
• Vanderbilt University Nashville

We're looking for people to lead on these projects and facilitate the direction of the learning working group.

The Learning Circle currently meets monthly on a Wednesday evening at 8pm for an hour on Google Meet and spends voluntary time outside of the meeting completing agreed tasks remotely.

Ideal candidates have experience in curriculum design, teaching, or educational resource development. Creativity, strong writing skills, and an understanding of outdoor or environmental education will be valuable. Our roles are quite flexible. We hope that people bring radical imagination, peace with nature, and courageous inclusiveness to the role.  

Your support will help young people and learners improve their environmental knowledge of design and research as well as contributing to our community-owned park. This will in turn provide a sense of stewardship over the land once the park is created and student's ideas have been built into the park. Creating learning projects with educational institutions will also help our charity with the strategy to buy the land through showing the value of our environmental education programme before we create the park. 

You will have a significant impact on the creation of a new biodiverse community-owned park with free access natural swimming ponds. By volunteering in this role, you will help shape the future of East London Waterworks Park as a community-led environmental learning space. This will also help our charity with the strategy to buy the land through showing the value of our environmental education programme before we create the park. If you’re interested in joining us, we’d love to hear from you!

We are looking for volunteers who would like to play a role in building people’s confidence! As an English-speaking volunteer whether native or fluent and with any kind of accent or background, you will have the skills needed to support people who would like to improve and learn the English language. Just by talking to those wanting to learn, you will be helping and making a difference!

What you will be doing

• Prepare and deliver engaging and supportive ESOL sessions tailored to learners’ needs
• Help participants improve everyday English for social situations, key events, and community integration

The skills you need

• Patience, empathy, and a passion for empowering others
• Ability to create a welcoming and inclusive learning environment
• Preferably hold a TEFL qualification but not a necessity

What's in it for you

• Supporting You - You will have a dedicated volunteer supervisor to support you in your role; Quarterly volunteer forums with the central Volunteering team and volunteers across Hestia; References for job applications.
• Developing You - You will gain knowledge and insight into issues that impact Domestic Abuse, Modern Slavery and Mental Health; You will have access to our extensive Learning and Development Programme; 40% of our departed volunteers secured a paid role at Hestia last year!
• Valuing You - Valuing You - We hold annual Volunteer Awards, outings, celebration, and social events for our volunteers to get together and have some fun; We reimburse travel expenses and up to £5 for lunch for your volunteering.

Who are we?

We are Buttons & Bubbles C.I.C. We work to increase inclusion and representation across society for the disabled community.We have several different services including inclusive characters, sensory workshops, resources, events, advocacy and more.

What are we looking for?

Are you looking for a volunteering opportunity that you can do in your own time and without having to leave the comfort of the sofa? Do you have a good imagination? Are you interested in graphic design? Or have an artistic flair?

We have a range of creative projects and tasks and our creative team have more work than people. From helping to bring our characters and bubble world to life to helping with our rebrand project. 

What do we expect?

• Be willing to undertake our training programme which will be done virtually and at a time to suit you.

• Sign our volunteer contract. (If you disagree with anything in it please do discuss it with us and we will be happy to have a conversation and make small changes if appropriate).

• A positive attitude to disability and illness. We are happy to answer questions on this.

What can you expect?

• A community group that does not currently operate a rota system of any kind. Youdon’t have to regularly commit your time.

• A kind, caring, nurturing company who cares about people, staff and volunteers. Our aim is to keep your wellbeing at the centre of our work.

• A very positive and proactive approach to disability and illness. Any and all accommodations will be made that you require. If there is anything you wish to discuss in private please email us and we will arrange a confidential chat.

Benefits to Volunteering with Buttons & Bubbles CIC

• Gaining valuable experience and improving your confidence

• Allows you to explore potentially different areas of interest.

• Make a difference to community

• Develop your current skill set and gain new skills.

• Displays your level of commitment to future employers.

• Displays your ability to balance and schedule your time effectively when seeking future employment.

For further information or to apply email us and we will be more than happy to have a chat. 

Please note we are looking for volunteers who are based in the UK. 

Children of Voices is a hugely respected charitable organisation helping to improve the lives of young people and their families through genuine care, love, and support.  

We are currently seeking a volunteer Personal Assistant/Office Manager. This role is ideal for an individual with experience as a P.A./Manager looking to work within the charity sector. 

Responsibilities typically include: 

• Acting as a first point of contact for enquiries: (email/calendar management and phone calls, managing diaries 

• Typing, compiling, and preparing reports, presentations, and correspondence. 

• Miscellaneous tasks to support the CEO which will vary according to projects and tasks but could include fundraising, event planning, social media, community outreach, press & PR. 

• Managing databases and filing systems. 

• Implementing and maintaining procedures/policies & administrative systems 

• Forming a relationship with our clients as they are part of the community. 

Essential skills for this role are: 

• Organisation skills: The ability to prioritise tasks, manage time, and keep track of deadlines is crucial.  

• Communication skills: should be able to communicate effectively in writing. 

• Attention to detail: the ability to pick up on small details can prevent costly mistakes from occurring. 

• Problem-solving skills: the ability to identify and resolve problems quickly and efficiently.  

This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a worthy cause. The organisation has a warm and friendly atmosphere and will be extremely rewarding for the candidate. 

We’re looking for full stack developers to help us create a ground-breaking web app that promotes sustainable living and climate action.

You will play a major role in:

• developing the server-side logic;
• ensuring high performance and responsiveness;
• ensuring front-end optimization;
• designing and maintaining database schemas.  

What are we looking for?

Three years web development experience with working knowledge of Python and, preferably Django framework.  Ability to:

• Write clean, efficient, and maintainable code that powers the application's back-end logic;
• Integrate user-facing elements;
• Optimize components for maximum performance & scalability;
• Build & maintain reusable component libraries to ensure consistency.

Preferably with PWA experience. 

What difference will you make?

You will play a key role in delivering this innovative app and in ensuring it reduces carbon footprints, and, inspires and enables sustainable action across the population.

You will be at the forefront of bringing climate action into people’s homes across the UK, making sustainable living accessible and appealing to everyone – and driving real environmental impact.

We’re looking for trustees

We’re looking to recruit dynamic, committed and motivated people with professional skills and experience who are as passionate as we are about empowering individuals to work through and beyond their experience of sexual abuse.

Specific qualifications are not necessarily required and we welcome applicants with lived experience. A genuine interest in learning about our charity and our services within the local community is essential.

These trustees will help to form a new board dedicated to supporting the charity and contributing to the effective and quality governance of Trust House. You will play an active role in developing the strategic direction of the charity and provide guidance to ensure the charity continues to support anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse in the Thames Valley area.

We’re looking for frontend a web developer to help us create a groundbreaking web app that promotes sustainable living.

You will play a major role in implementing a series of design upgrades to improve the UX and ensure accessibility, browser compatibility and web standards. Your main task will be to convert design ideas into responsive HTML/CSS components.

What are we looking for?

UK based developers with experience of translating design files into clean, semantic HTML/CSS code and establishing component-based architecture. Ability to:

• Convert design mockups/wireframes into responsive HTML/CSS components;
• Build & maintain reusable component libraries to ensure consistency
• Collaborate with designers & developers to translate visual designs into functional code;
• Optimize components for maximum performance & scalability.

What difference will you make?

You will play a key role in delivering this groundbreaking app and in ensuring it reduces carbon footprints, and inspires and enables sustainable action across the population.

You will be at the forefront of bringing climate action into people’s homes across the UK, making sustainable living accessible and appealing to everyone – and driving real environmental impact.

We are looking for volunteers to spend some time with our clients  in and around Central London or  to speak to them over the phone.  Our current needs are in Tulse Hill and Stepney Green, and we are looking for someone to call, then potentially meet with a client in Bromley.Locations  often change as new referrals come in, so if you are interested in befriending someone and making a positive difference to their emotional well being, please contact us, we may have a client in your area!  

 Meetings are regular, usually weekly or fortnightly, for at least 6 months although most of our volunteers stay involved for much longer than this, only because they enjoy what they do!  Phone calls are usually up to one hour and  are made once a week from any quiet space in your home or office. 

Befriending is a simple way to make a positive difference to someone who feels lonely or is socially isolated.  Your gift of time and companionship will give them, and you, something to look forward to. As one of our volunteers once said,“this is an easy, very meaningful way to help someone and is immensely rewarding and fun!”  

Meetings are held in the local community, having a friendly chat in a coffee shop, visiting places of interest together, or in our client’s home.Our clients are older Scots, (60  plus ) who simply want to do the activities that most of us take for granted.

We provide training before you start, ongoing support once you are matched, out of pocket expenses, references, social events and newsletters. 

This could be the ideal opportunity  for you to gain practical experience of working with adults in a health and social care setting, or for anyonewho simply enjoys meeting new people and making their lives a little brighter. 

Please note, this is an unpaid voluntary role and applicants must be living in the London area. 

Please contact us for more information, and a very warm welcome!

Skills & characteristics required for befriending are:

• English speaking, clear communication for coversation
• Good listening skills
• Friendly, warm and non-judgemental 
• Honest, reliable and committed
• Empathy 
• Understanding of the need to maintain confidentiality (covered in training) 

An enhanced DBS check will be processed  for successful applicants and two references are required. 

A charity  based in  Croydon, Surrey, London, UK is looking for volunteer Charity Volunteer Assistants; to volunteer 30 unpaid hours per week. The Charity serves a multi ethnic community especially people from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds. 

Responsibilities:

• To assist in the delivery of events (ours and those we are invited to), projects and our yearly summer community event.
• To assist in the daily collection and drop off of Greggs after day produce to various soup kitchens
• To assist in promotion of organisations services. eg flyer distribution, school workshops, etc.
• To assist in the delivery of essential services 
• To assist in our soup kitchen projects

Person Specification:

• Someone enthusiastic and passionate about charity work and committed to working towards the achievements of the charities objectives.
• Knowledege of Black and ethnic minority tradition/culture is preferable however not essential.
• Experience is desirable.

This is a non-paid one year temporary position however accommodation and maintenance will be provided.

All interested candidates are required to send us a letter of application, a resume, and contact to the email provided. If your application is accepted, you will be invited for a telephone interview. Any applications received after the closing date will not be considered unless we have been unable to find a suitable candidate for this vacancy.

Successful candidates will require a DBS/POLICE check and references prior to commencement.