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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, public speaking, time management, social skills, proactiveness, future plans and aspirations, accessing further education courses or work placements, additional services or local 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.
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.
Can you spare 1/2 hours per week to support families within Edinburgh?
Volunteering Matters are a national volunteering charity. We are looking for "Family Support" Volunteers in the City of Edinburgh, who can offer practical, social and emotional support to a local family in need.
Our Family Supporters programme recruits, trains and supports volunteers, matching them 1:1 with parents and families facing a range of life challenges and barriers. Volunteers help families, spending 1:1 time together on a personalised set of goals chosen by the family, for the family.
These goals may including achieving improved living standards, building confidence and soft skills, budgeting, healthier eating, better school life, improving health and wellbeing or introducing parents to community resources, and lots more.
If you have an understanding of the challenges that families are facing and would like to use your life experiences and skills to support others, this could be the role for you!
As a volunteer, you will build a strong relationship based on trust and mutual respect, acting as a friendly face who listens and cares about the family.
Home-Start are looking for volunteers with parenting experience or experience of working/volunteering with children/families to help families (with at least one child aged 8 or under) who could use some additional support.
Volunteers use their experiences of parenting or work/volunteering with children/families to help by offering emotional and practical support to families, with the aim of enabling them to lead less stressful and more enjoyable lives.
The needs of individual families will vary but as a Home-visiting Volunteer you could be involved in anything from engaging in fun activities with the children and helping parents with managing behaviour to practical or emotional support for the families.
We take all our volunteers through a FREE training course to ensure that they are fully prepared and confident in the role. This is a great opportunity to grow and gain experience in a support-focused role. You'll also have the chance to meet new people, learn new skills and use your knowledge to improve the lives of local families and children.
Usually volunteers support families for around 2-3 hours a week and the time is flexible to suit your availability.
Your role as the Telephone Befriender is to engage in conversation with a client over the phone, building a rapport and engaging with them on a weekly basis (note: some befriending matches require more than one call per week). Most of the referrals come from our partners and other agencies but some are self-referrals. All referrals are due to the client being lonely and feeling isolated. It should be noted, that does not necessarily mean they are an older person living on their own. Some referrals are for younger adults who may live in a ‘busy’ household.
As a Befriender your co-ordinator will match you to a suitable client. This will be done after finding out more about both yourself and the client to see if there are similarities in personality, hobbies etc. It will not be done purely on age – often the perfect match is with different generations.
Your role will be to chat to the client, using your own phone from your own home. You will be required to actively engage and encourage conversation – sometimes this needs to be led by you, the volunteer, as there could be barriers with the clients such as: confidence, disability, speech issues etc. The Telephone Befriender will not be expected to offer advice or to ‘counsel’ the client – you are simply someone to have a chat to and be a listening ear – something for the client to look forward to each week. Befrienders should give minimal personal details about themselves and should never ‘off-load’ their own issues to a client. Your coordinator will always be there to deal with any concerns you have about any of your matches.
VASA induction training will be given and guidelines issued around safety protocols for volunteers and clients. Workshops will be available from time to time to cover areas of interest around Befriending.
A PVG check will be carried out prior to commencement as a befriender.
It should be noted that this role does not include any face-to-face befriending and no volunteer should arrange to meet with a client. Post COVID, if a one-to-one, face-to-face service was developed, appropriate training would be given then if deemed applicable.
DUTIES: The role of the Telephone Befriender will be as follows:
• To offer friendship and encouragement, via a telephone call, to a client who is isolated and lonely.
• To provide a listening ear.
• To facilitate conversation and engage with clients.
• To build up a relationship with the befriendee, giving them something to look forward to on a weekly basis.
• To commit to a minimum of 20min per week to the service.
An exciting opportunity to join the Under the Trees team, working in the great and beautiful outdoors whilst gaining valuable experience working with young children and young adults. You will potentially be working in all weathers and in all seasons - we can provide waterproofs! Under the Trees runs fun and educational sessions for school children in the Falkirk and Stirling areas, as well as a programme of public events for all ages, backgrounds and abilities. Events run all year round.
As a Volunteer Education Assistant, there will be opportunities for you to do a range of the following:
- Assist with Educational Sessions for school groups, including term-time forest schools.
- Assist with sessions for the general public, including a monthly nature club for ages 0-13.
- Assist with holiday play sessions and family events.
- Plan and lead in activities.
- Maintain resources effectively.
- Keep session areas safe and tidy.
- Desk-based activities in planning, creating materials and administration.
FCSS has been created to challenge the inflexibility of current childcare provision across the country and to ensure equity of early years’ and childcare experience for all children regardless of family circumstances, location or specific needs.
We are now seeking new Trustees to join our board and help us to drive flexible childcare across Scotland.
Board Trustees are responsible for the charity’s governance and strategy, and for making sure that the charity is administered effectively.
Help us to tackle child poverty by making flexible childcare the rule, not the exception!
As Part Of The Angus Council Holiday Programme , We Are Looking For Additional Volunteers During The Angus School Holidays in 2024
Saturday 6th April & Sunday 7th April
Friday 28 June to Monday 12 August 2024
Monday 7 October to Friday 18 October
Friockheim Park Community Volunteers Are Offering Stay & Play Sessions
At All These Sessions We Will Be Providing Hot/Cold Drinks, Refreshments & Fresh Fruit To Both Children & Adults.
You Will Be Part Of A Team Of Volunteers Running Each Session Which Will Be Held On A Variety Of Days Throughout The Holidays,
An Enhanced PVG Will Be Required For This Role.
Please See Below Sections With More Information.
We Look Forward To Hearing From You Soon.
Could you make a difference to a parent or carers life?
Aberlour works with children and young people who have experienced disadvantage, trauma or have disabilities. We pride ourselves on our child centred focus and strong commitment to the individual development of each child emotionally, socially, physically and intellectually.
We help parents and carers who are struggling to cope as a result of a variety of issues within the family. We work with whole families as well as children on their own. We are looking for Befrienders to work with parents/carers to provide opportunities for activities and to have someone to speak to.
What will I be doing?
• Making a difference a parent/carers life
• Spending regular time with a parent/carer
• Helping support families experiencing difficulties
• Supporting them when difficulties arise
• Sharing an activity/hobby
• Attending activities
• Completing a diary after each visit
• Attending regular support sessions
• Contributing to service assessments through support.
What skills can I bring to this role?
• A genuine interest in the well-being of families
• A few hours to spare each week
• Reliability and discretion
• Friendly and approachable
• Non-judgemental attitude
• Good communication and listening skills
• Responsible and dependable
What qualities do I need?
• To have a non-judgemental attitude and approach to working with parents/carers
• To be empathetic
• To be able to treat all information in a confidential manner
• Be friendly, helpful and understanding
• Be enthusiastic, flexible, committed and patient.
When will I be needed?
• Befrienders will spend a few hours each week with a parent/carer and also attend monthly group activities and attend all Aberlour training
• Flexibility
• A minimum of 1 year’s commitment is required for this role.
Location - Dundee & Angus
What will I gain from the role?
• Befriending training
• Make new friends and meet new people
• Get out and about
• Have FUN!
• Attend social events.
What support will I be given?
• Induction and child protection training
• Befriending training
• Specific training
• Matching support
• Ongoing support and supervision
Additional Information
Due to Health and Safety requirements you must be at least 18 years of age to undertake this volunteering role.
For all roles involving regulated work with children and/or protected adults, Aberlour will require the applicant to submit a PVG Scheme Record or a PVG Scheme Record Update application. This opportunity is subject to the completion of satisfactory references and successful registration on the PVG Scheme.
Why we want you
Parent to Parent is the National Autistic Society’s award-winning UK wide confidential emotional support helpline which is provided over the phone by trained volunteers, who are all parents of autistic children and adults. The volunteers all have personal experience of autism and the impact it has on their own families. They are there to give parents and carers the opportunity to talk through any issues, feelings or problems they’re experiencing. They can suggest helpful strategies, signpost them to other sources of information and support, or just provide a non-judgmental listening ear. Volunteers provide this from their own home.
All volunteers must be a parent or primary carer of an autistic child or adult.
What you will be doing
Calling parents and carers of autistic children and adults who have contacted the Parent to Parent Emotional Support Helpline
Providing emotional support and a non-judgemental listening ear to other parents and carers
Signposting parents, when appropriate, to information and advice services via email
Recording details of interactions with parents on the service’s secure system
Dealing appropriately with confidential information and documentation in line with the service’s policies
Some occasional travel to attend training and forums will be necessary
You will need access to your own computer/laptop with internet access
Are you looking for a rewarding way of sharing your experiences and life skills in order to make a positive impact in your community and help tackle poverty? This is the opportunity for you!
Volunteering Matters are now recruiting volunteer mentors for the MSV (Mentoring & Supported Volunteering) project in Dundee. Mentors will provide 1:1 support to an individual in their community to overcome barriers they face in reaching positive destinations e.g. employment, further education, volunteering etc.
MSV is a person-centred project, putting mentees at the heart of the match making process. The volunteer mentor role is fully supported by the MSV team, and the time commitment is very flexible, we ask for a minimum of 4 months commitment, but many mentoring relationships have gone on longer than this. This role will involve getting to know your mentee and the challenges they may face, discussing their future goals, building their confidence, sharing your own experiences or skills, and ultimately championing them to progress in life and work.
MSV mentoring can take place face to face in/around the Dundee area, or remotely/online where necessary.
Our volunteers do not need to have any specific career experience or qualification – just a positive and empathetic mindset and a passion for helping others to succeed. Some mentees are looking for a career-based match (working with someone who has experience of the area they want to pursue), whilst others are looking for more general support in identifying their goals, building their self-confidence or working through challenges they face with a new, objective perspective. Your personal outlook, life experiences or professional expertise could be exactly what a mentee is looking for in mentoring support – so please get in touch!