Forfar Open Gardens are looking for Volunteer Gardeners to provide general help within the garden whether that be pottering in the outdoor or indoor planting areas, clearing and pruning in the large woodland space or any of the many jobs in between. The garden is an open space for people young and old to come along and enjoy so you have a keen interest in gardening or would like to learn then they would love to hear from you. Youth opportunities are available on Friday afternoons. Interested? Want to know more? Get in touch.

Aberdeen City are looking to recruit new Children’s Panel Members. Our Panel Members are exceptional. They support infants, children and young people in local communities across Scotland. Excellent training and support is provided to all Children’s Panel Members including pre-service training, ongoing training/support and Panel Members are allocated a ‘’buddy’ when they join, this is their go to person throughout training and when they start sitting on hearings. We are looking for good listeners, people who are caring, compassionate and reliable. You need to be over 18 and live and/or work in the local authority area in which you wish to volunteer. If that sounds like you, the please come along to one of our virtual information sessions: -26th January – 10-11.30am -3rd February – 7-8.30pm -10th February – 7-8.30pm To book a place or for any further details please e-mail Cnevill@aberdeencity.gov.uk

Main duties: • Planning and preparing meals for 30 people (plus) including doing any shopping for ingredients. • Assist in the preparation of vegetables, meat, salads, pasta, puddings etc • Responsible to help keep the kitchen area clean & organised. • Responsible to ensure food waste & other waste items are disposed of in the correct recycling bins. • Responsible for assisting with washing dishes and lifting to storage areas as required. • Notify staff of items that need to be replenished and restocked. • Assist with stock rotation • Taking & recording appropriate food temperatures in the food hygiene book. • Responsible for serving guests in a pleasant, efficient, courteous, and professional manner. • Light lifting/uploading/moving of food supplies. • Use basic kitchen equipment safely & operate basic electrical & mechanical equipment including dishwasher. • Responsible for other duties that may be assigned from time to time.

COG: Community Outreach Group provides support to homeless and vulnerable people in the City of Aberdeen. COG Community Outreach Group proudly helps our community by offering those in need support through welfare and helping battle loneliness. We offer tea, coffee, soup and sandwiches but most importantly a friendly chat and maybe you can play a game or two to help make that connection. We provide support from our stall outside Marks and Spencer at the St Nicholas Centre, Aberdeen from 5pm on a Sunday and 6pm on a Wednesday and have weekly evening trolleys along Union Street starting around 6pm. All volunteer help is greatly appreciated and makes a real difference for people we support and the community. For more details please contact Rebecca Fyfe, COG Committee Secretary at email beccafyfe@hotmail.com or tel.: 07415723938.

FRESH Community Wellness is a registered charity (OSCR-Office of Scottish Charity Regulator charity number SCO51346). We are currently working to help engage the community and we are seeking more friendly volunteers to reach residents who may be looking for safe, free options. Anyone of any ability can volunteer with us in some way. We are working in several partnerships which include Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Paths for All, Aberdeen City Council and many more. Are you interested in health, wellness, caring for others, community gardening, food growing, nature, the environment, children’s activities, event planning, fundraising or sports and up for helping to regenerate an entire community? In addition to our community based activities, we also have multiple home-based volunteering options for graphic design, admin, website and social media editing. If you have a couple of hours free to spare each week and are enthusiastic about the idea of uniting communities and making the local area safe, tidy, and beautiful – then please do help us out. Ways you can join and assist us as one of our great volunteers include: *Practical, Wellness Volunteer roles: Practical roles include helping gardening, painting, building, labouring, groundworks, walk leaders, wellness coaches, health and fitness coaches, tree planting – with both skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled positions available for all. *Project Leader roles: Project leaders for Fresh trails (walking/ Lifestyle), Fresh SLING (Seaton Linksfield Inclusive Neighbourhood Gardens), Fresh SNUG (Seaton Neighbourhoods United Garden), NEST (Neighbourhood Environmental Safety Team), FRESHEN (Fresh Events, News), FreshCOM (Fresh Communications (radio, film, written, digital & photography) with more to follow! *Outreach & Welfare Volunteer roles: Outreach & Welfare opportunities are local residents’ welfare checks, street welfare checks, food growing/poverty outreach, gardening outreach, environmental safety outreach. Volunteer Team Leader positions are also available. *Professional/Skilled Volunteer roles: Include assisting with charity governance, health and safety, first aid and trainers, surveyor/architect, environmental/greenspace management, digitisation, carers/counsellors, mental health first aiders, trustees/committee members, and more! With optional roles as assistants/trainees too. *Volunteer Admin Opportunities: Helping with a range of admin related tasks which can include as fundraisers, event planners, donation acquisitions, community engagement, PR and flyer distribution, food/hospitality, media group, local/national business liaison, safeguarding, health and wellbeing, youth groups, 55+ groups, equality and diversity, digitisation and trustee board assistants. We offer induction, training courses, as well as free PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups) applications for our safeguarding process. We have the ability for immediate starts following application/references, to start the volunteer’s pathway. This is an excellent opportunity to give back. Also, if you wish it is a great way to boost your CV, prospects, gain experience and skills. Most of all you will be making a real positive difference for people and the community, which will be greatly appreciated by all. As a registered Scottish charity, we are happy to issue references for your volunteering with ourselves. For further details about helping volunteering with us please contact Sam Raion, Chair/Co-Ordinator at E Mail: samraion84@gmail.com or tel.: 07562689691.

We work with males over the age of 26 years who have had a drug or alcohol problem. Our aim is to give people back their self esteem and a purpose in life away from addiction. We do this through a variety of ways such as having monthly outings e.g.: fishing gorge walking, bowling. We also do a community garden. This helps people give something back to their communities and helps break down stigma. We meet on a Tuesday from 12-2.30pm. We also do a Thursday from 10am-12.30pm which is a drop-in with activities such as board games and arts and crafts. We have opportunities for people to volunteer to help out at the groups. It is very enjoyable, rewarding and you would gain good experience and make a very positive difference. All help is greatly appreciated and makes a real difference to people and the community. For further details please contact: Aileen Goymer-Davidson on: aileengoymer@hotmail.co.uk

Aberdeen in Recovery (AiR) was granted Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) charitable status in March this year. We are now looking to find talented, passionate and skilled people to fill some vacant seats on our Board of Trustees to help us grow and develop our innovative and solution focused new charity. This is a unique opportunity to help lay the foundations to ensure AiR has a long-term future as a charity with solid processes in place to ensure it meets its mission of: “To be a bridge from ‘dependence’ to ‘independence’ for the individual seeking to recover from problematic substance use and addictive behaviours”. This is such an exciting and invigorating prospect for individuals to get involved and be participant in the tsunami of change which is now gaining momentum and being driven by “Experts by Experience” and the vibrant Lived Experienced Communities which are blossoming, not only locally but are now established as a national phenomena. Since its conception, AiR and its members have worked tirelessly to establish and build collaborative relationships with professional services and third sector support agencies. We have consistently driven the message that individuals who have personal lived/living experience of active substance use, including Family members who have been affected by the addictive behaviours of a loved one, and the Recovery Communities they represent have something valid, essential and extremely beneficial to bring to described Recovery Orientated Systems of Care (ROSC). We can provide existing services and clinical structural systems with resources, skills and capabilities that they, no matter how much effort, time and money they invest, will never be able to offer or provide. So, it gives the greatest of pleasure to see this is now recognised on the highest levels that “Recoverists” can productively contribute to the design, development and delivery of truly person-centred ROSC. This being evidenced by the vision, philosophy and content of the Scottish Governments “Rights, Respect and Recovery” Drug and Alcohol Strategy. We also believe it is reaffirmed by the recent success in being granted funding from the Government’s National Development Fund, with our principle partner Alcohol and Drugs Action (ADA), for our ‘Recovery Peer Pathway’ joint two-year project. This collaborative venture will build on three years of pilot work to further establish and build proactive and productive Developmental Pathways within ADA and their Volunteer network while in synergy with AiR membership for individuals who desire to initiate change in their behaviours and outlook as they progress on their recovery journeys within, and imperatively out-with, statutory and formal support services. We believe that the blue sky thinking behind this project categorically and emphatically fits with the expectations, outcomes and concepts of the above Government policy. So, if you have lived experience, or a stakeholder interest, and a passion for recovery and are willing to give of yourself that another may learn, you will not find a better opportunity to indulge your appetite than from within Aberdeen in Recovery. For more information please contact Dermot Craig, Recovery Community Development Manager at E Mail: dermot@aberdeeninrecovery.org or tel.: 01224 638342 / Mobile: 07751 213108.

The workshop is a safe alcohol / drug free working environment. Our aims are to support our workers and where possible enable them to enter into mainstream employment. Working in a supported workshop, assisting worker / volunteers with barriers to employment e.g. mental health, drugs / alcohol issues, to carry out assigned tasks.

Volunteers can give their time to on a Friday night to work with the young people. This will allow them the opportunity to get alongside the young people, get to know them and become a positive role model.

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.