Family friends work directly with families, coming alongside and giving support to parents and children when they need it most, making sure they feel less isolated. Safe Families is a charity that works with 35+ local authorities around the UK. Safe Families offer hope, belonging and support to children, families and care leavers; they do this primarily, but not exclusively, with and through local churches. No one should feel alone. Safe Families exist to create relationship and connection because everyone deserves to belong. Volunteers will undergo training before matching with a family, to help them feel best equipped and prepared. They will receive support throughout the entire process. Family friend support can range from a couple hours every few weeks, to once a week support - meeting for coffee, being a listening ear, going out to the park etc. Contact Caitlin at caitlinfrew@safefamilies.uk or 07393462300 for more information about volunteering.

Could you offer an hour per week, to support a young adult in Midlothian? "Grandmentors" is an award winning mentoring programme, matching Volunteer Mentors who have a range of life skills and experience, with young adults aged 16-26 who are care experienced or who face a range of other life challenges or barriers. Grandmentors launched in Midlothian in 2023. Our Volunteer Mentors help young adults to navigate the transition into adulthood, guiding and helping them learn valuable life skills such as managing their finances, accessing Employment, Education and Training, and supporting their physical and mental health and wellbeing. Normally our Volunteer Mentors are aged 50+ and have skills and life experience to offer. However, if you are younger than 50 and feel you could offer time to support a younger adult, we would love to hear from you too! It is important that you have good people and communication skills, patience, and can offer a regular commitment of at least an hour per week (or a couple of hours per fortnight). Full training and support will be given throughout your volunteering experience as a Mentor! We will also re-imburse any volunteer expenses costs that you incur. Interested in finding out more? Apply today and we will be in touch!

Across all three sites, we are looking for volunteers to support the running of the group, and volunteers to befriend attendees on a 1-2-1 basis. The group has Christ at the centre, and group volunteers need to have a Christian faith with a church connection. For those engaging in 1-2-1 support, a strong Christian faith is required, ideally with lived experience of addiction or experience of working in this area. All volunteer should help attendees feel welcomed and comfortable, whilst also maintaining appropriate boundaries, e.g. chatting and contributing to the group discussion.

Would you like to make a difference to New Scots, Migrants, Refugee families in your community? Would you like to help tackle Child Poverty? We have the right opportunity for you! Volunteering Matters is now recruiting volunteer mentors for our Parental Employability Project to help build resilience and aspirations to move parents towards and enter employment. While our staff will be on hand to help you provide employability specific support to parents, your role as a mentor will be focused on developing additional skills and overcoming personal barriers to facilitate their entry into the job market. More specifically, you might be supporting your mentee with confidence building, communication skills, social skills, proactiveness, future plans and aspirations, accessing local community groups. No previous experience or knowledge required, just a willingness to make a difference to families in your community. We especially welcome applications from mentors that have direct or indirect lived experience of any of the mentioned barriers and struggles and feel ready to provide friendly guidance to someone who is on their employment journey. We welcome mentors with additional languages. You will be ideally a flexible, patient and reliable individual with strong people skills. Before you start, we will invite you to attend training, aimed at providing you with all the necessary tools and knowledge to carry out your mentoring role safely and knowingly. You will also have multiple opportunities to meet with the mentor project worker in 1:1 meetings and go through any questions or doubts you may have before you start.