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.

S.H.I.P. provide support to young people with Additional Support Needs from five, through their school years, and beyond. This support is delivered in a variety of ways. We offer weekly Youth Clubs, After School Clubs, Saturday Clubs and Holiday Clubs, where young people can relax and enjoy themselves, whilst developing social and life skills in a safe, fun and friendly environment. We are recruiting volunteers to support our young people by supervising fun and creative activities, such as arts and crafts, cooking, and in the summer, outdoor activities. You will be working alongside our practitioners to design, deliver and support engagement in fun activities for our young people, working as part of a relaxed and supportive team!

Over The Wall is a charity for children and young people with health challenges and disabilities to discover a world of mischief and magic. We provide a safe place to step outside of comfort zones, establish friendships and build confidence through meaningful and exciting activities. We run residentials in England and Scotland, as well as virtual activity camps for families in the UK to join from their own homes. We need volunteers each year to help run our programmes. There are a variety of roles to suit each volunteer’s skills and strengths. You can join us at our residentials as a teammate, clinical volunteer, activity leader or as media crew. Or, if you want to help from the comfort of home, you can join Camp in the Cloud as an online facilitator. Volunteers are a huge part of the heart and soul of Over The Wall. You play a leading role in providing the magical, transforming experience we give our campers and their families. Not only this, but you’ll have fun yourself! You’ll have chance to develop your own skills, make friends and create memories that last. It’s not just our campers that Over The Wall has a lasting impact on! To find dates and locations, visit otw.org.uk, where you can start your volunteering journey today.

We are looking for volunteer Lead Readers to help facilitate our shared reading groups, which take place in a variety of locations across Scotland, whilst some of our groups meet online. Group sessions involve reading part of a book and a poem aloud, before having an informal and friendly discussion about what we've read. The Lead Reader's role is to select the reading material for each session and help to guide the discussion so that everyone feels included. We can offer flexible opportunities to suit different schedules. We currently have specific vacancies in Edinburgh on Monday mornings, and on Thursday afternoons and evenings with our online groups, but if you have other availability, we'd still love to hear from you.

Give the gift of your time and become a volunteer mentor for young people. It could be life changing for you both! Would you like to support a young person on their journey to gaining new skills and experience, becoming more self-confident and achieving their goals? If the answer is yes, we would love to hear from you. Why mentoring? Mentoring is at the heart of what we do here at ProjectScotland and we offer every young person we support, the opportunity to be matched with a volunteer mentor. We are searching for people in Dundee who are able to offer one hour of their time once a week or fortnight for up to 12 months to help transform the life of someone else. The young people we work with all face different challenges in their lives such as; mental ill health, long term unemployment, low confidence and self esteem, care experienced, limited English communication skills due to being new to this country or disabilities. As a volunteer mentor, you could support your mentee with whatever is important to them. This could be: goal setting; identifying interests and strengths; confidence building; helping to establish a routine; support to explore job, training and further education opportunities; social connections; or just someone consistent to talk to and check in with to see how they are. The support you can offer is invaluable and can be life changing. How does it work? • Following recruitment, we provide training, support to join the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme, ongoing support, access to lots of resources and a wonderful community of mentors across the country to connect with, learn from and build friendships with. • you are matched to one young person and meet with them once a week or fortnight for around one hour • meetings can be face to face or virtual using email/telephone/video chat/WhatsApp. There is also an opportunity to do a mixture of the two which offers a flexible and accessible approach to this volunteering role in addition to the match itself. •matches can last from 3-12 months depending upon the relationship and the needs of the mentee What’s in it for you? • Help transform your mentee’s life • Develop communication and interpersonal skills e.g. coaching, motivating others, adaptability • Gain transferable skills and experience volunteering with disadvantaged people • Participate in regular support and training • Meet new people, connect and have fun! • Learn about yourself and gain a sense of achievement supporting others • Learn more about your community and the challenges that people can face If you are interested in this opportunity please email: alice.carbone@volunteeringmatters.org.uk We would love to hear from you! More info about ProjectScotland: ProjectScotland (now part of the Volunteering Matters Family of Brands) works with people (predominantly young people) across the country who are struggling to overcome challenges such as social isolation, mental health issues, low confidence and general uncertainty about their futures. By providing wrap around support and the chance to complete a voluntary placement with a local charity; not only can this enhance confidence and self-belief, but it gives that individual the opportunity to build on their skills and experience and potentially move on to a job, further education or training. Everyone we work with is also offered a volunteer mentor.

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.

• Location: The Linburn Centre, West Lothian • Team/Service: Wellbeing Service, Sight Scotland Veterans • Volunteer Manager: Senior Centre Officer • Type of role: ongoing role, all year round – no defined end date • Restrictions: you should be at least 18 years old to apply for this role Suggested Time Commitment: Ideally, you will be available to volunteer for at least one full day per week; however, we can be flexible in terms of times and days. Please note this role is only available on weekdays during normal office hours, Monday to Friday. Why do you need me? Creative? Love arts and crafts? Find it easy to share what you know with others? Always up for a friendly chat? If so, you could well be perfect for our arts and crafts volunteer role, helping our veterans develop their skills and creativity in our fully equipped, purpose-built art room. We are looking for a volunteer who can support veterans with their tasks and projects, so your hands-on artistic skills will be key. Equally, you should be someone who can strike up a friendly conversation with our veterans and support interaction between them. As a volunteer, you will meet inspiring people, gain valuable experiences, and help us to change the lives of those who have served their country. What’s included in the role? This is a perfect opportunity for a volunteer with a passion and skill for creating visual art: such as drawing, painting, crafts, and sculpture. You will be supporting and tutoring veterans who have visual impairments to help them express themselves and create art of their own. Why should I volunteer in this role? Volunteering at our veterans’ centre means you’ll be getting to know people who have served their country and lived fascinating lives. You’ll volunteer alongside our expert staff and our other incredible volunteers. As an art volunteer, you will become a valued member of the wider Linburn Centre team. All Sight Scotland Veterans volunteers can attend special events such as training sessions and are recognised for their contributions through our national ‘thank you’ programmes. We reimburse our volunteers’ out-of-pocket expenses; more information is available in our volunteer handbook. We are committed to good practice in volunteer engagement and are proud to be an Investing in Volunteers accredited organisation. Who will I be volunteering with? You’ll be volunteering alongside staff and other volunteers in The Linburn Centre’s art room. Our Senior Centre Officer will be your named key contact on our staff team, with responsibility for supporting you and overseeing your involvement as a volunteer. Do I need any previous experience for this role? Not necessarily, but experience in teaching or tutoring would be an advantage, particularly in art or related fields. It would also be helpful if you have experience with people who have visual or other sensory impairments. What’s most important is that you have effective communication skills, and are friendly, professional, and dependable. If you would like to get involved but have little or no previous experience, or if some of the tasks mentioned above might be challenging, please speak to us. Where possible we will aim to tailor the role to your needs. We’ll provide an induction and training for you (about Sight Scotland Veterans, its values, and your role) to get started, and we’ll help you to keep learning while you’re volunteering with us. You’ll also have free access to all the courses in our online e-learning system. Who can volunteer with Sight Scotland Veterans? It’s important to us that our volunteering opportunities are inclusive, and we want our volunteer team to include a diverse range of people and backgrounds. Anyone is welcome to apply, and when you do, we’ll get in touch to arrange an informal chat with you. This will help you understand a bit more about the role and see if it’s right for you. What if I need some extra help to volunteer? Most of our volunteer roles are flexible and can be tailored to meet your needs. Our volunteer managers will be happy to discuss any help that you might need to volunteer when you first meet up. This can include how we might adapt the role for you and what other support is available. Will you carry out any checks before I can start this role? For this role, we will carry out basic disclosure checks. We will help you with this and there is no fee to pay. If there’s any information that you’d like to share with us, you will have the opportunity to do this when completing your application/registration form. We also ask for two references.

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. As a volunteer you’ll receive full training, support from the volunteer team and your local advocates, and paid expenses. 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.

Fundraising groups are the local face of Muscular Dystrophy UK, raising vital funds and constantly raising the profile of the charity so that they can reach more people and their families affected by a muscle wasting condition. They need you to help them; they are asking for your skills and enthusiasm to help grow their fundraising groups! They need people to join with like-minded people in your local area and make Muscular Dystrophy UK better known in your town by collecting for the charity and planning activities to raise awareness. With that, you’ll: -Meet and work with new and inspiring people -Developing your communications, fundraising, PR and organisational skills -Add to your CV -Develop your leadership skills -Making a difference to your local community by raising funds and the profile of MDUK in your community -Have fun, share your enthusiasm and get to enjoy something new

There are 110,000 children and adults with muscle-wasting conditions in the UK, and Muscular Dystrophy UK needs you to help raise awareness. As an Ambassador you will be a representative for Muscular Dystrophy UK. You will use your influence and contacts with local small businesses and individuals in your local area to help build Muscular Dystrophy UK networks and fundraising partnerships. You will learn to be confident in speaking about the cause and the work of the charity; developing relationships with key supporters and individuals as part of the process. Raising awareness of who they are and what they do is very important to the charity so they are looking for a proactive volunteer who will seek out speaking opportunities and make asks on behalf of the charity to attend events where further awareness can be raised.