Caseworkers visit clients to work out what type of help they need. Next, they find the right sources of support and arrange for clients to access it. This might be funds for special equipment for someone with a disability, adaptions to a property so an older client can remain at home or funds for a rental deposit. Caseworkers also sign-post clients onto specialist local services for advice on benefits, housing, mental health, debt, finding work etc. The essential part of the role is interacting with clients, so you may be visiting clients or doing this virtually. As part of your local branch you might have access to an office, but many volunteers are based at home. What does this role involve? • Contacting clients and arranging to meet them at a mutually convenient time either face-to-face or remotely • Liaising with clients and completing a form to assess their circumstances • Sign-posting clients onto local services providing specialist advice • Applying on the client’s behalf to military and non-military sources of charitable funding • Arranging for the purchase of goods and services • Keeping in touch with the client so they know how their case is progressing • 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 • Being a positive ambassador for SSAFA remembering that anyone you meet could be a potential client, volunteer or fundraiser • 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.) What can you gain from this volunteering role? • Support people in your community with a military background • Use your skills, knowledge and life experience to benefit others • Support and friendship 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! Minimum Age: 18 Is a criminal record check required? Yes

Could you support unpaid carers or people with disabilities to access benefits? Could you help someone find local services? Could you help someone understand the information they have been given about their care and support? Could you support or lead a group of people on a topic of interest? You could help improve the quality of someone’s life. This role is ideal for social work students, an interest in the care sector or retired professionals. Support Session Volunteers help our clients with general advocacy, supporting people with a variety of challenges. This helps us to reduce waitlists and support more individuals by: • Helping clients understand about advocacy • Supporting clients to self-advocate with our tool kits • Signposting clients to other services where required • Supporting the service to deliver “collective” advocacy sessions • Light Touch Advocacy • Supporting advocates with casework • Promotion of services and the organisation • Logging activity onto our systems Volunteer, Ben’s priorities changed after a serious illness. “I wanted to give something back. It’s really rewarding as you get to use your knowledge and skills for a really good purpose.” You’ll develop skills in communication and confidentiality, add experience and knowledge to your CV, and know you’re making a genuine difference to people’s lives.

Can you help promote services to local people in your community? Can you help at events and awareness raising sessions? You could help improve access to services in your community. This role is ideal for people who already have a connection to their community or would like to build one. The Service Team Volunteer role supports in the delivery of advocacy and other services by: • Helping clients understand about advocacy • Attending events and awareness raising activities • Networking and promoting our services and organisation • Signposting to other services • Building professional relationships and partnership working • Supporting our community engagement programmes in your local area Volunteering with VoiceAbility is ideal for people who have or want experience in human rights, health, care and wellbeing - but we care more about your values and empathy than your level of experience. Volunteer, Ben’s priorities changed after a serious illness: “I wanted to give something back. It’s really rewarding as you get to use your knowledge and skills for a really good purpose.” You’ll develop skills in communication and confidentiality, add experience and knowledge to your CV, and know you’re making a genuine difference to people’s lives. As a volunteer you’ll receive full training, support from the volunteer team and your local advocates, and paid expenses.

NHS Lothian Charity provides funding ranging from £500 to £100,000’s to support a wide variety of projects to benefit patients, visitors and staff (e.g., wellbeing spaces, arts and music). Volunteers will spend time chatting to patients, staff and visitors about their experiences, carry out surveys and questionnaires and help the charity to understand the impact of the funding it provides.

The role will help give girls opportunities for fun, friendship, challenge and adventure! Girlguiding's unit helpers usually work with other volunteers to assist in delivering a high-quality programme to the girls and young women in the unit, while ensuring the safety of the unit members. Unit helpers assist the unit leadership team in running units (groups) of Rainbows (age 4-7), Brownies (age 7-10), Guides (age 10-14), and Rangers (age 14-18). You will be part of a Leadership Team that includes at least one unit leader, assistant leaders and possibly also young leaders and other unit helpers. What is the purpose of this role? To help give girls opportunities for fun, friendship, challenge and adventure! Occasional Helpers usually work with other volunteers to assist in delivering a high-quality programme to the girls and young women in the unit, while ensuring the safety of the unit members. Helpers assist in running units (groups) of Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers on a regular or ad-hoc basis. You will be supported by at least one Unit Leader, Assistant Leaders, Young Leaders and other Unit Helpers and Occasional Helpers. What will I do as a unit helper? The responsibilities below will be shared among the Unit Leadership Team. As a helper you will work with others in the team to make the most of the skills and time you are able to give. - Provide a safe girl-only space where girls and young women can discover their full potential. - Provide support to members of the unit and the Unit Leadership Team. - Take an active role in creating and delivering an accessible and inclusive programme, based on the Girlguiding programme for your section. - Encourage and support the members of the unit in making decisions within the unit and the wider Girlguiding community. - Develop and maintain clear communications with the Unit Leader and other members of the Leadership Team. - Maintain clear communication with parents and carers. - Be willing to participate in any relevant ‘on-the-job’ training for the role. - Comply with current Girlguiding policies and regulations. Helpers are key in supporting girls and young women to experience how great Girlguiding can be. While we can offer you support in your role we would expect you to possess the personal qualities outlined below. - An open and approachable manner. - Reliable and trustworthy. - Creative and enthusiastic. - Committed to ongoing personal development. - Fun-loving. - A sense of humour. - Enjoys working with young people. Girlguiding welcomes volunteers of all backgrounds, ages, cultures, faiths and abilities. We are flexible, and volunteering can be arranged to fit around a busy lifestyle. Our units are currently meeting online and/ or outdoors. This autumn we anticipate that units will also return to indoor guiding but the situation will differ from area to area, following Scottish Government advice and regulations. When you register interest, we'll chat to you about whether you are interested in supporting units face to face (indoors or outdoors) or remotely (whether as part of online guiding or by supporting other ways of staying in touch remotely)

At the heart of guiding are the unit meetings that girls go along to regularly. Volunteering at unit meetings means getting stuck in, meeting new people and running activities that help girls know they can do anything. You’ll volunteer directly with young people and can choose to work with girls of different age groups between 4 and 18 years in Rainbows, Brownies, Guides or Rangers. Unit meetings are usually once a week for around an hour plus prep time. Lots of new volunteers start out as a helper at regular unit meetings. You’ll work alongside other volunteers to give girls fun, friendship, challenge and adventure. There's no responsibility for planning in this role but you'll be the extra pair of hands needed to make unit meetings happen. Register your interest to find out about unit helper roles near you

At the heart of guiding are the unit meetings that girls go along to regularly. Volunteering at unit meetings means getting stuck in, meeting new people and running activities that help girls know they can do anything. You’ll volunteer directly with young people and can choose to work with girls of different age groups between 4 and 18 years in Rainbows, Brownies, Guides or Rangers. Unit meetings are usually once a week for around an hour plus prep time. As unit leader, you'll run the unit, lead a team of volunteers, and plan and deliver a programme of awesome activities. If you'd like to become a leader, you'll be supported to complete our leader development programme. You'll have training on everything from planning activities to child safety. Want to more about what Girlguiding involves? All girls follow our programme. In unit meetings, they do fun activities, play games and earn skills builder badges, all while being supported by our trained volunteers. Rainbows welcomes all girls from 4 to 7 years old for play, learning and tons of fun in a colourful, safe space. Rainbows laugh, sing and make a happy mess (and help clear it up!) as they choose their way through our programme of activities. Rainbows have plenty of magic moments: they might become a time traveller, an animal tracker, a pop singer, a stargazer. It’s a wonderful world of adventure, week after week, just for them. Brownies welcomes all girls from 7 to 10 years old for nonstop fun, learning and adventure. It’s full of firsts: she might grow her first plant, cook her first cake, put up (and take down) her first tent, light her first fire, go on her first fun-packed weekend away with guiding friends. With a helpful hand from our encouraging volunteers, she’ll explore her creative side, get out into the great outdoors, and start learning to look after herself, others and the world we live in. There’s something for every girl at Brownies, and plenty of moments she’ll never forget. Guides is a relaxed, welcoming space where you can have fun, learn and be yourself with good friends from 10 to 14 years old. A place where you can explore the things you love and do stuff you’ve never done before. Where else can you think up a new sport, make a new perfume, cook over a campfire, design an advertising campaign, have a mocktail party, raise money for a charity you believe in? At Guides, you can do all of this and loads more. Rangers is your space – where you get together with other girls from 14 to 18 to have fun, learn more, give back, hang out, and just be you. It’s regular meetings with your local group, trips at home and abroad, making a difference to the things you care about. It’s an open and relaxed space to talk with good friends – it’s qualifications, and badges and awards. It’s the freedom to be more independent, and to do what makes you happy. Rangers is what you make of it. FInd our more about volunteering with Girlguiding by registering your interest today!

We are recruiting new volunteers to be part of our Dementia Helpline team. Can you spare 8 hour per month to make sure nobody faces dementia alone? Our next Helpline Volunteer Preparation Programme is running in Glasgow during January 2024 For further information on this and other training dates please email helpline@alzscot.org

Helpline Volunteer - Children 1st Parentline Edinburgh Are you caring, non-judgmental, empathetic and passionate about supporting others? Can you commit to our training course and give a little of your time each week to support families across Scotland If so, please get in touch - we’d love to hear from you. What will I be doing? Volunteering for Children 1st Parentline is a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of children and families across Scotland. Children 1st Parentline volunteers provide support to adults by phone, webchat and text offering a kind and skilled listening ear and time to talk about anything to do with children. They build supportive relationships and work alongside individuals to help them think through what will work best for their families, keeping children at the centre and being mindful of the challenges families face today. A caring, kind and non-judgemental response can make a real difference to someone who wants to talk. No previous experience or formal qualifications are necessary however good communication skills are essential to enable you to listen to and support those who contact Children 1st Parentline. You will become part of a friendly, supportive team where trained staff are always on hand to provide support and guidance. We provide a comprehensive introductory training course as well as ongoing support and opportunities to develop in the role. Volunteers are able to claim reasonable out-of-pocket expenses for travel and costs incurred as part of the volunteering role. The helpline is open Monday-Friday 9am-9pm and 9am-12 noon Saturday and Sunday throughout the year. We ask our volunteers to give a weekly commitment of around 4 hours and there are a range of options for days/times based at the Children 1st Edinburgh office. This is what some of our volunteers have said about volunteering with Children 1st Parentline: ‘Training to be a Children 1st Parentline call taker and all the subsequent time volunteering has really helped me build some skills which I wish I'd built years ago. Many of these I'd call 'life skills' which I can usefully apply in many different parts of my life.’ ‘If you feel that you may have been able to help someone - even in a very small way - it makes you feel that you are doing something positive in that person’s life.’ ‘No matter how many calls I have taken, I still find that there is no such thing as two that are identical. Every person is an individual with their own particular issues and this keeps you interested in the role.’ Training Our next training will start in January 2024 and will take place at our office at 83 Whitehouse Loan, Edinburgh, EH9 1AT.

SOHTIS is a leading anti-human trafficking NGO in Scotland. We are committed to bringing freedom to victims and survivors of human trafficking in Scotland. We have an experienced team which has much to offer to the wider NGO and statutory sectors. We are looking to recruit volunteer(s) who can assist us in securing opportunities to provide these skills via the public tendering procurement system in Scotland. This is a great opportunity to join our passionate team and working closely with our CEO.