Mumsnet Talk

Good idea throckenholt, and good way to include DD. According to yell.com our nearest one is over 6 miles away which would be a struggle to do regularly though. I am planning to phone our nearest Age UK branch today and see if there are any elderly people in our village who could benefit from someone popping round once a week to put a duster round and have a chat.

I do quite a lot of different things. I help out at the local Primary School, am on the PTA and Parent Council of my DC's school and am also a Scout Leader.

I also do voluntary work in the office of our local Children's Hospice. I thoroughly enjoy that.

That visiting elderly people in neighbourhood thing sounds fab! When I was a little girl my sister and I used to make mice pies etc for widow who lived across the way he loved it and we loved the attention too!

Opps I meant mince not mice! He wasn't a cat

Going to be hosting a child from Belarus in a few months' time through the charity 'Friends of Chernobyl's Children'. He will live with us for four weeks. Slightly different from your typical charity work, but really looking forward to it!

It will involve helping with the excursions/sightseeing (child will be coming over with other children who will live with other host families in the area) with other volunteers and spending lots of time with the children.

I help to implement a reading booster scheme at Son3's school - I went on a 2 day training course with a TA from the school and between us we support two children at a time for ten weeks to improve their reading. I'm in school three times a week and on two of those days I also listen to other readers. Our year 1 is split between two classes (10 in a mixed YR/1 class and 10 in a mixed Y1/2 class and I'm currently doing the scheme with two of them and reading with the rest of the year ones in the class. I love it :D

In the past I have been on various committees (toddler group, pre-school, PTA, governing body etc) but currently I'm not doing any of those.

The Do-it website is very good at filtering your local volunteering opportunities based on your interests.

Family Support Worker for Barnardos half a day a week, and Riding for the Disabled (Kids with SN) for one morning a week.

Both enjoyable, tho' the Barnardos thing is hard sometimes if you have a family with multiple problems.

Some lovely acts of kindness here volunteering.

I am a peer supporter at my local breast feeding group. I tend to make the tea and toast (a highly important part I must add!) whilst the medically trained staff deal with the yummy newborns. I do speak to the mums about weaning options and bf problems like baby refusing bottle (common).

Different things over the years including mentoring a teenager who was excluded from school and had a difficult home life...different charities do this across the UK, but you'll find info online. Perhaps being a magistrate would suit you, if so, try Ministry of Justice website.

I help out at DS's school and Beaver group.

I found the school work quite an eye opener. I thought I was quite authoritative - when I worked I was told I was "scary". But these 7 year olds just run rings round me! I had thought about retraining to be a teacher when DD was at school. No way after last weeks session!!!

I run a rainbow and brownie group and volunteer for the NCT running coffee mornings. I love both, my rainbow and brownies are in an area where most girls had never even heard of guiding, and they love it! I've found the NCT great for making friends and very welcoming.

I'm a school governor, and volunteer in the local Leonard Cheshire home (for the disabled) where I do craft/baking activities with the residents. They are always desperate for drivers. I also help with the school cooking club. For quite a few years I was a Samaritan but that can be quite emotionally draining.
Lots of our local parks are "run" by teams of volunteers in conjunction with the council. We have a city volunteering service who can match you up with volunteering opportunities (though I found they weren't v helpful - just found my stuff by ringing people direct and asking how to become a volunteer).