Volunteer work with teens/adults with additional support needs

[Toppl]

Has anyone done this? There is a place near to where I live and it is a community/village with teens/adults living there who have additional needs. It seems a lovely place where the people live in small houses/chalets and they work in the community there, sometimes making crafts or helping in the kitchen/cafe which is open to the public. There is also a farm, a shop and a bakery where I think they work too. It helps these people to have a safe place to live and work. But I know some of the disabilities are more severe than others. Some are able to help serving in the shop etc whereas others I see out for walks with their carers who I don’t think would be able to do this as they seem more like they can’t take instructions well. Led by the hand etc. so obviously it’s a range of abilities as you would expect really. They are always looking for volunteers to help for a few hours and I was thinking I could do this. But it’s not something I have any experience of. Just thought may be on here if anyone had helped at something similar could give me their thoughts on it?

My disabled ds uses this type of clubs/activities, his are non-residential and yes, they do have volunteers helping.

There is usually a paid employed staff who run the place and the volunteers fill in various roles depending on interest, eg sports, crafts, music/singing etc.

The residential place I know they operate approx 9-4, they do gardening, crafts etc.
It's hard to generalise as every disabled adult is so different but they usually work in small groups. Patience is definitely required but it's not a very stressful/pressured environment as far as I can see.

I was involved for a few years in one of the groups running 1-2 outings/activities p/year, some were on a rota basis.

You could enquire and find out what particular activities they are looking for volunteers for, I had a friend who went in for one morning p/week and they were making greeting cards and similar paper crafts.

I do know a number of people who run the groups, both staff and volunteers as I see them a few times p/week, if u have any specific questions I can ask.

There’ll be a range of tasks - such as working alongside people rather than actually guiding them; work that clients generally can’t / prefer not to do (eg more skilled gardening, maintenance, etc); maybe progressing to supporting someone in particular within a staff-led small group, or supporting with numeracy/literacy learning tasks, etc.
Approach the organisation and ask them - they’ll be used to having volunteers with little or no experience.

I worked as a volunteer with a couple of charities that did sport / drama for kids with learning difficulties as an undergrad. the charities recruited lots of students to this and it was a great experience with a good community of friends among the volunteers too. strongly recommend it.

Thanks for your replies. Yes I was just a little worried about being out of my depth. The website mentions various training which can be given, including hoists and behaviour strategies. But maybe that’s for after been volunteering a while and taking on more responsibilities. I like the idea of helping do the crafts etc and working alongside them. I think I would have the patience for these things. As you say I should probably ring them to ask what opportunities available currently