Advice, Information Volunteer Roles in North West
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Can you lead the way by helping to set up a new Wildlife Watch club for young people in your local area?
Help us engage the next generation in taking action for wildlife!. We are looking for people to help with our existing groups in Barrow, Cockermouth, Gosling Sikes (Carlisle), and Grange. We are also looking for a Watch leader and helpers for our Penrith group.
What is a Wildlife Watch Leader Volunteer?
Wildlife Watch is the junior branch of the Wildlife Trusts and is the UK's leading club for young environmentalists. Our local Wildlife Watch clubs across Cumbria run a varied programme of fun environmental and wildlife focused activities, aimed at 6–12 year-olds and their families.
As a Wildlife Watch Leader you will be a key player in Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s work with young people. You will have the opportunity to engage with a group of young people on a regular basis, to getting to know them and helping to shape their learning and understanding about the environment. This role can extremely rewarding for you.
What’s in it for you?
• Becoming part of a friendly and dedicated team of volunteers and staff at Cumbria Wildlife Trust
• Getting out and about in nature
• Health and wellbeing benefits
• Passing on your wildlife knowledge and enthusiasm to our next generation environmentalists
• Learning new conservation, administration and life skills that will help your future career/learning opportunities.
• Access to support and resources from Cumbria Wildlife Trust. Materials and training will be provided. Helpers will also support you with planning, preparation, delivering and administration of activities
What’s involved?
As a Wildlife Watch Leader you will:
• Publicise the presence of the group to local children, young people and their families
• Plan and organise a fun programme of activities throughout the year with, and for, the group, using themes relevant to Cumbria Wildlife Trust. You will deliver regular, hands on, informal outdoor activities, enabling young people to explore the wildlife around them more closely
• Adopt guidelines to assist you in running safe and enjoyable meetings. These include safeguarding, H&S, risk assessments and participation registration
• Promote Wildlife Watch and Cumbria Wildlife Trust, using templates and posters provided
• Keep in regular contact with Cumbria Wildlife Trust, young people and their families
• Support young people gaining Wildlife Watch awards, celebrating their activities and achievements
Who would suit this role?
This role will suit anyone interested in volunteering with Cumbria Wildlife Trust, who loves wildlife and wants to make a real difference in their local community. It would especially suit those who:
• Are keen and confident working with young people
• Have a natural enthusiasm for wildlife and nature of Cumbria (You DON’T need to be an expert)
• Are full of creative and fun activity ideas
• Are willing to learn how to organise and plan the leadership of safe sessions
• Able to work well with other volunteers and share tasks as a team
• Eager to have a real impact to support our next generation environmentalists
• Enjoy working in an outdoor environment (in all weathers!)
This is a very flexible volunteer role. As a leader you can decide with your helpers how often - and when - you wish to run sessions
Volunteer handbook and Trust induction.
Health and safety and safeguarding training will be mandatory.Risk assessment, participant registration, Wildlife Watch templates, posters, email etc.. will all be provided
Volunteers are able to receive travel expenses of 0.45p per mile agreed in advanced with their staff contact.
First aid training will be provided for volunteer leaders.
The Trust will apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for volunteers undertaking this role because it involves working with children and young people or vulnerable adults.
In the second stage of the volunteer recruitment process, we will take up two references.
Is this for you? Want to learn more about this role? We'd love to hear from you.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Would you like to help us monitor our restored hay meadows? Do you have some plant ID skills or are keen to develop your skills? Then join our team of meadow surveyors.
Surveying grassland hay meadows that Cumbria Wildlife Trust has restored, or has the potential to restore. This involves counting the cover of wildflower species and grass species within celled quadrats at random locations across the site.
- Previous botanical ID skills would be ideal but not essential if the participant is happy to learn.
- Survey skills using quadrats will be required to carry out the task but these skills can be taught too.
- A willingness to work with other volunteers as a pair to carry out the survey.
- We would like to ask for a minimum of one botanical survey (2 full days of surveying) per year.
Our grassland team works on many grassland sites; some being our own sites, on partner organisations sites, various landowners and farmers holdings etc. With the help of our grassland survey volunteers, we are able to revisit more of our restored sites to monitor its progress and success which can support our future restoration work.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Fancy doing something different and making a difference?
Explore and record our coastal and marine wildlife.
All welcome!
Our marine projects (‘My Local Catch’ and ‘The Bay’) run a range of regular coastal surveys along the Cumbrian coast.
From ‘Shoresearch’ citizen science projects, rocky shore walkovers, sediment cores, plankton surveys, shark egg case hunts and land-based dolphin spotting, there are many ways you can volunteer and learn about our amazing coastal and marine life.
For our organised coastal events, please wear suitable outdoor clothing and stout footwear.
If any of these events are for you, then we’d love to hear from you.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
We are looking for Volunteers based in either:
Gloucester, Bristol., South Wales, Devon, Somerset, Hertfordshire and Leicester.
To help run our family hubs, where tasks involve making refreshments and interacting with families.
Help with fundraising events: include selling raffle tickets, helping at the charity awaremeness stand, talking to people etc.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
We are looking for self-motivated and compassionate individuals to help facilitate our support groups and make a difference to the lives of people affected by cancer.
Support Groups offer those with cancer a chance to share their feelings and experiences in a safe and welcoming environment. Support Group Facilitators listen, provide emotional support and share approved cancer related information.
No special qualifications are needed for this role, but being able to devote time to setting up and maintaining a group is essential.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Family Lives was formed over forty years ago by volunteers with the aim of ensuring that all parents had somewhere to turn before they reach crisis point.
Remote Family Support Volunteer – Live Chat
We know that the right support at the right time makes all the difference. Family Lives provides targeted early intervention and crisis support to families who are struggling.
Organisational values:
Mission: We build better family lives together.
Vision: Families should have access to active support and understanding.
Values: Trustworthy, Compassionate and Collaborative
Purpose of the role: To be part of a flexible team providing empathic, caring and informed support to families, carers and others who use our services.
Live chat: is a free confidential service that is accessed via our website. Service users are offered emotional support, information and advice and guidance on a broad range of family issues.
Supervised by: The Shift Supervisor
Activities: The volunteer will be fully supervised, supported and trained to provide the following activities:
·Provide emotional support to family members via our live chat service
·Use the Family Lives support model and tools to provide an empathic responses
·Ensure that all service users receive a high quality experience
·Sign post users to other agencies for information and additional support
·Complete conversation data records
·Alert the shift supervisor to any difficult situations
General: Volunteers should be willing to:
·Attend the relevant volunteer training
·Maintain confidentiality and adhere to the other policies and procedures of the organisation
·Participate in regular support, supervision meetings and learning sessions as agreed
For home based volunteers only:
·Volunteers will need a Laptop/PC, plug in headset with microphone, fast broadband and a private place to work from home
·Volunteers need to be IT/PC literate and confident troubleshooting should they have technical difficulties
Time: We would be looking for volunteers to commit to one four-hour shift per week, plus attending training and supervision.
Location: working remotely from home
You need to be a UK resident
Supervision and Support:
·Supervision during shifts
·Debrief after every shift
·1 to 1 supervision every 6 months
·Staff available outside of shift within office hours
·Annual review
The Benefits of Volunteering:
·Satisfaction in making a real and lasting difference to families who are struggling
·An opportunity to develop experience for CV and references. Family Lives is committed to helping volunteers develop their own learning and development, gaining new skills, knowledge or work experience
·Being part of a team of Family Lives volunteers and staff
·Personal development
·Opportunities to meet and interact with a wide range of people
·Out of pocket expenses reimbursed to a maximum of £10 per session if working from a centre
·Flexible hours
Volunteer Person Specification. We are looking for individuals who:
·Have experience of parenting/being in a parenting role or demonstrable experience of working with parents or children e.g. in their work, previous volunteering or a previous role
·Have an ability to respond empathically to emotional content
·Good written and verbal communication
·Have good keyboard skills and IT skills, with a minimum of 50 wpm
·Can demonstrate a willingness to question their own attitudes e.g. toward different forms of parenting
·Have a fluent, descriptive and expressive use of English
·Can remain open minded and non-judgemental
·Willing to commit to work within Family Lives’ policies, in particular our Confidentiality Policy and Risk of Harm Procedures
·Willing to commit to attending regular supervision and support sessions
·Willing to work as part of a team
·Willing to commit to a mutually agreed period or ideally a 12 months commitment to the organisation.
Typing Task Prior to Application for Live Chat
Prior to you submitting your application for a Live Chat Volunteer, we will require you to do a speed test, we ask for a minimum speed of 50 words per minute.
Please take a screen shot and send it across with your application
You can have up to 3 attempts and decide which result you would like to forward as part of your application
Typing task
Go to the website typingtest
You are required to take the one minute typing test recording all of the results (speed, number of errors and adjusted speed).
We have remote voluntary call taker training groups the dates are below are you would need to be able to attend all 5 Modules from the training group.
Our next training groups are:
June Saturday training dates:
Module 1 – Saturday 8th June
Module 2 - Saturday 15th June
Module 3 – Saturday 22nd June
Module 4 – Saturday 29th June
Module 5 – Saturday 6th July
10am to 2pm
OR
June training dates:
Module 1 – Monday 10th June
Module 2 – Wednesday 12th June
Module 3 – Monday 17th June
Module 4 – Wednesday 19th June
Module 5 – Monday 24th June
10am to 2pm
Please note that all roles offered are subject to a satisfactory DBS being obtained, you will receive details of documentation required prior to your training and this must all be in no later than the second session of your training.
Typing Task Prior to Application for Live Chat
Prior to you submitting your application for a Live Chat Volunteer, we will require you to do a speed test, we ask for a minimum speed of 50 words per minute.
Please take a screen shot and send it across with your application
You can have up to 3 attempts and decide which result you would like to forward as part of your application
Typing task
Go to the website typingtest
You are required to take the one minute typing test recording all of the results (speed, number of errors and adjusted speed).
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
We are recruiting volunteers who enjoy volunteering in their community to help raise the charity’s profile at a local level. Everyone has their own community and we would love to work with people who can share their passion, interest and enthusiasm for Yes to Life with people in their communities who could benefit from our work. The role descritption provides a list of ways you can do this but we are very happy to listen to your suggestions and ideas too. The role is flexible and you can choose how many hours you dedicate to the role.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
We are looking for self-motivated and compassionate individuals to help deliver our Helpline service and make a difference to the lives of anyone affected by cancer.
The Helpline offers those with cancer a chance to share their feelings and experiences with someone who has empathy for what they are going through. Helpline Volunteers create a safe and welcoming environment, listen, and provide emotional support and signposting individuals onto further information.
No special qualifications are needed for this role, but access to a telephone in a comfortable quiet setting is essential.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Family Lives operate a free confidential helpline for anyone experiencing difficulties in their family or relationship.
Our volunteers take calls from parents and carers on a wide range of subjects, whether that might be issues around separation and divorce, isolation, depression, bullying and abuse, dealing with behavioural problems, etc. You can find out more about our services on our website.
We are a national service with home-based call takers county wide and we also have a call centre in Old Hatfield Hertfordshire. Once trained volunteers sign up for a weekly 4-hour shift comprising 3 hours ‘online’ followed by a debrief session with your supervisor which can lasts around half to one hour.
We recruit volunteers with a range of backgrounds and experiences though we ask that volunteers have experience of parenting or working with children and young people, are good listeners and have a willingness to learn. Being remote it will be very important that you have a PC/laptop, plug in headset with microphone, good Wi-Fi and a private place to work from home.
You need to be a UK resident.
Our training programme is excellent and will give you the opportunity to develop the skills needed to offer empathic support and guidance to callers whatever their circumstances; all shifts are overseen by a regular shift supervisor who provides ongoing remote support. We ask our volunteers to make a commitment of 1 year (with time off for holidays), obviously we understand that circumstances sometimes make that an impossibility but can be helpful to know at the outset that is the general expectation.
We have call taker training sessions that run over five sessions and is done remotely connecting you via a Microsoft Teams link.
You would need to be able to attend all five sessions from one of these remote training groups and be available on four occasions to listen into calls, this can be organised remotely.
Remote Call Taker Training Dates:
June Saturday training dates:
Module 1 – Saturday 8th June
Module 2 - Saturday 15th June
Module 3 – Saturday 22nd June
Module 4 – Saturday 29th June
Module 5 – Saturday 6th July
10am to 2pm
OR
June training dates:
Module 1 – Monday 10th June
Module 2 – Wednesday 12th June
Module 3 – Monday 17th June
Module 4 – Wednesday 19th June
Module 5 – Monday 24th June
10am to 2pm
Please note that all roles offered are subject to a satisfactory DBS being obtained, you will receive details of documentation required prior to your training and this must all be in no later than the second session of your training.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Would you like to support people who have served in the Armed Forces? You don’t need a military background, just patience, and an ability to get on with people from different backgrounds and age groups. If so, this could be the role for you.
What is a Visitor?
SSAFA Visitors provide support to isolated people living at home or in residential care. Whilst a friendly chat about the old days over a cup of tea is an important aspect of the role you will also be able to recognise any other support needs and explore how to link your client into their local community.
Why do we need you?
We’ve been supporting the Armed Forces community since 1885. Our clients come from all backgrounds and age groups and may have served in WW2 or in a more recent conflict like the Falklands or Afghanistan.
There are SSAFA branches throughout the UK and overseas who support local volunteers to deliver services to veterans, serving personnel and their families. Some branches are divided into smaller divisions to ensure the best local service delivery. Each branch has a team of volunteer caseworkers, support volunteers, executive roles, and fundraisers.
With the gift of time and a listening ear you can improve someone’s quality of life for far longer than the hour or so you might spend with them. We need you to join your local SSAFA team to help us to help more people!
When would you be needed and where would you be based?
The essential part of the role is visiting clients, so you will need a driving licence and access to a vehicle or another way to travel to meet clients at home or elsewhere.
Some volunteers will visit more people than others. Whilst you will visit a client on a regular basis for a period, you will not be developing the kind of relationship where you would provide personal care, handle money or support someone in an emergency. SSAFA can help clients to arrange other types of support if needed.
What would you be doing?
- Contacting clients and arranging to meet them regularly at their home or care home for uninterrupted conversation.
- Letting the divisional secretary know of any concerns for your or the client’s safety.
- Arranging for a SSAFA caseworker to assess the client for other support as required.
- Chatting, making a cup of tea, playing cards, looking at photo albums, military mementos etc
- Helping your client to think about ways to reduce their isolation and support them to put these into practice.
- Keeping in touch with your branch so they know your availability.
- Keeping up to date with training and SSAFA news so that you are best able to support clients.
- Volunteering within the standards and values of SSAFA including observing our policies such as the Volunteering policy and Data Protection policy (these will be covered in your training and local induction.)
The remit of this role may change over the next 12-18 months depending on the outcome of a trial currently being undertaken.
What could you gain from this volunteering role?
- Support people in your community with a military background using your patience, time, and empathy.
- Support from your local SSAFA branch and the wider SSAFA community
- Experience, training, and skills that you can highlight on your CV and in job interviews.
- Better physical and mental health – studies show that volunteers live longer and experience lower levels of stress and depression.
What training and support would you receive?
- Role specific training to prepare you for your voluntary role – confidentiality and boundaries, friendship, and befriending. This training would take approx. 4 hours.
- Mandatory on-line training modules to complete at home, so you are up to date on how to keep clients, their families safe and personal information safe.
- Local Induction
- Access to the Volunteer Support Team based at our central office.
- Reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses
- Volunteers will be covered by SSAFAs Public Liability Insurance whilst carrying out the role.
What are we looking for?
- Friendly and approachable people with good listening skills, patience, and a cheerful attitude
- Good spoken English
- Ability to be respectful and non-judgemental with clients, their family, other agencies and SSAFA colleagues.
- Ability to keep within the boundaries of the role with regards to friendship, finances etc.
- Reliable attitude, contact clients promptly, keep regular appointments, update the branch regarding your availability.
- Ability to maintain confidentiality and keep information safely (within SSAFA policies)
- Willingness to travel by public transport or car to appointments with clients.
We welcome volunteers of all backgrounds, abilities, races, sexual orientations, socio-economic backgrounds, and of all faiths and none. SSAFA are committed to making reasonable adjustments to support volunteers with disabilities, so they have access to the same opportunities and experiences as volunteers who do not.
Minimum Age: 18
Safer Recruitment: SSAFA undertakes a systematic approach and utmost care at every step of the process of volunteer recruitment, selection, and retention to ensure that those recruited are suitable and appropriate. Measures taken at points along this journey work together to make volunteering at SSAFA a positive and safe experience.
References Required: Yes. We will ask for two character references, this can be a former employer or someone that know you well (other than a relative)
Is a criminal record check required? Yes, this is provided by SSAFA at no cost to the potential volunteer This role requires an enhanced check.
*A disclosure certificate that contains convictions, cautions, warnings, reprimands, or other information may not automatically mean that you are not able to volunteer. All certificates will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and, where possible, a modified or alternative role will be offered.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Companion volunteers support anyone with a terminal or life limiting illness aged 18 or over and their family. Companion volunteers provide companionship, emotional and practical support and short carer respite.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
We are looking for someone who knows the CSA / CMS system to either do some on-line advice sessions or to be on the board readily available to answer CSA questions. This is an on-line role so needs access to facebook and an email address will be provided
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
We are increasing our councillors that we have for our main group and sub groups and we now need someone to supervise them. You need to be trained in this.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
We are looking for someone to replace our current housing advice role as she is having to take time off. If you have expertese in this area please apply!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
We are looking for trained or experienced Mckenzie friends to offer some scottish family law legal advice on our groups. We have a few volunteers already but they dont know scottish law.
We are looking for someone training / trained / or have experience in family courts for Scotland