Volunteering - what do you do?

[mintpenguin]

If you volunteer are you actually doing so at the moment and what do you do?

I’ve tried a few places and I’m coming up against a brick wall with being told they don’t need anyone, or it’s evening/weekend work or a car is required. I’m looking for school hours where possible (I know this makes things tricky sometimes).

I’ve tried:
CAB (only want specialist volunteers near me)
Baby Bank
Food Bank
School (Reading mentor/library - no volunteers allowed onsite)
Library (not recruiting still)
Four local charities (all either not recruiting due to vacancies filled or Covid reasons)
Local council - their volunteering site has been taking down during Covid
Vaccination Centre (overun with volunteers and I missed out)
Beavers/Scouts (offered to help with DS group but no response other than to acknowledge my offer)
Do-It website - either has nothing near my town or they want people with particular skills I.e solicitor etc.

I know there is charity shops and the Samaritans but for my own reasons I am not keen on these options.

I’m starting to feel a bit shit that no one is interested in having me as a volunteer - and I’ve either enquired online or by phone so it’s not like I’ve even had an interview and they’ve decided I’m not suitable.

Age UK have phone befriending and again you can do it in your own time.

I’ve been a Samaritan, a treasurer of two different voluntary organisations, and now, in retirement, I volunteer in a charity shop. We can put in as many or as few hours as suits, not everyone works on the shop floor or the till, some of us have useful knowledge.

One of our volunteers is very knowledgeable about books, another knows lots about collectables. One of the staff is a whizz on branded clothes, and some are general all rounders, who take on different roles. Why not give it a try, you might enjoy it.

That is such a shame your Homestart closed down.

Local museum? Locally they’re crying out for help now.
Local farm schools

Does anyone know if there is a religious aspect to the Samaritans? Or do they accept non-religious people equally?

One of my Dc used to do ebay listings for a charity shop they loved it and could do it in their own time.

I'm on a swimming club committee too, and volunteer ad-hoc for two local conservation groups. One of my DCs volunteers at a local
museum. I'm also surprised Scouts didn't bite your hand off, I was a trustee of ours for several years and we were always short of volunteers, we are at the swimming club too.

Re scouts/beavers - does this still need to be in school hours? If so it may be harder. If your most local group has plenty of volunteers, there may be one a little further away that's short. Or scout groups are often crying out for a treasurer. It's worth having a Google and contacting your district commissioner team as they will know which groups are short on volunteers.

I spent 8 years working for lowland search & rescue. Search teams exist to provide police forces with trained and equipped search resource for missing person searches. But it's not really suitable for some one who also cares for a child because of the unpredictable hours.

It takes about 4 months to qualify as a searcher. Then you have to be willing to turn out at any hour. Need a DBS check. You have to be able to cope with what you might find, you have to be fairly fit and not mind bad weather.
It's really interesting and most search teams are keen to have extra women, to allow for balanced search teams. Look up ALSAR if you are interested.

Also

Register on Voice and Cochrane, you can volunteer for one off events and volunteer online.

I am a school governor in 2 schools. One was DD's primary school and one is another school that was desperate for governors. Contact your governor services at the Local Authority as they will have a list of schools that need governors, and the only affect covid has had is that are meetings are via zoom.

I am really surprised you cannot find anything, although many charities have not yet gone back to face to face work and this maybe why you cannot find much. Have you tried your local council, they often know of opportunities. Also google local smaller charities as they may need volunteers as many older volunteers have stopped due to COVID. I would say telephone befriending is a good call, I work for a charity and we desperately need telephone volunteers but we work locally.

Care4Calais are always looking for volunteers to support asylum seekers. On their FB page you can see where people are needed. They have various roles, from handing out clothes and essentials, to signposting people to legal support, helping with correspondence forms etc.

I volunteered at a local food bank making deliveries by Ebike during lockdown because they were closed for people coming in but sadly many people still needed help.
Deliveries have stopped now and I miss it terribly

My church - I'm the leadership secretary. Also do admin for the anti-poverty project.

Before I became disabled I taught basic skills to young adults through a charity and loved it. Not fit enough for it now.

Currently training as a counsellor and hope to offer free sessions through church when I qualify.

I was going to suggest HomeStart - they are such a great charity and fit really well around school hours. I volunteer for them, and also Riding for the Disabled.

I'm surprised that you aren't having your hand bitten off - perhaps once school goes back?!

Bereavement counselling for my local hospice . This includes those that are going through the bereavement of their own life about to be lost.

Whereabouts are you, OP?
There seem to be a few Scout leaders about (inc. me) and it might well be that the email address you were given was out of date or you disappeared into someone's spam folder - I know our Akela would have leapt on you for Beavers with both hands!

@Hen2018 I'm a Samaritan, no religious aspect to it, you absolutely don't need to be of any religion to volunteer.

@Hen2018

Local museum? Locally they’re crying out for help now. Local farm schools

Does anyone know if there is a religious aspect to the Samaritans? Or do they accept non-religious people equally?

No religious aspect to the Samaritans.

Some more ideas are: listening to children read, driving people to and from hospital appointments, taking emergency blood through town (if you are a motorcyclist).

School governor

I volunteer at both Beavers and Scouts and a, a trustee for 2 charities.

Speak to one of the leaders personally at scouts. Emails often go astray.

I volunteer at my local hospice. I do mostly admin but as you can see there are loads of other rôles. They're a bit short of volunteers right now because some of the retirees who used to volunteer stopped during lockdown and either don't feel safe or just don't want to come back.

To add re scouts in England they are still on school holidays so the leaders really won't even look at emails until it's much nearer term starting.

I believe there is some demand for befriending isolated people, a phone call and a chat type thing. Not sure who runs these but maybe older people services at your local council can advise. Though if it's for a chatty phone call it doesn't even need to be local.

Hospital radio. But loads of hospitals are desperate for volunteers in various areas.