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.

To facilitate group advocacy meetings on REH wards (along with a Patients Council volunteer or staff member), in order to ascertain the patient voice; to take these patient views to meetings with hospital staff and managers in order to promote their rights and address their concerns; to attend regular meetings with other volunteers to allocate work and discuss how best to represent the patient voice; to adhere to the volunteer agreement, collective advocacy practices and the SIAA Principles.

As a Polish support work volunteer/ translator you will gain work experience in supporting Polish clients whom have been referred to our service. You will support the client to attend the service during their 4 week trial period, to help them feel more at ease and comfortable. You will be able to meet new people and support clients to engage in the activities within the premises. You will advocate on behalf of Polish speaking service users making sure staff and other clients understand their wishes. This will help the client to integrate into the service and improve their communication and language skills. In this role you may be requested to support English-speaking clients too.

As an Online Peer Support Volunteer, you will provide email support on a one-to-one basis to young people with an eating disorder, aged between 12-25 years old. All of our Online Peer Support Volunteers have recovered from their own eating disorder and are aged between 18 – 35 years old. You will be trained in how to offer support and guidance, as well as how to manage boundaries. All contact will be moderated by Beat staff as everyone’s safety is our priority. The service will require you to commit to 1-2 hours per week, comprising of sending 1-3 emails within this time frame. The maximum length of time someone can receive this support is one year, however we would welcome your commitment in supporting others over the duration of this contract.

At present we have a website, just recently constructed but needs to be optimised. We have an independent Twitter account and a Facebook page but the Facebook account is connected to the manager's personal Facebook page. We, therefore, need to develop an independent Facebook page for the charity. We believe it would also be advantageous to the charity to have an Instagram page. We need a volunteer, or volunteers, to create a new Facebook page and an Instagram page. To moderate, promote and develop the charity on social media creating a profile that will hopefully assist us in promoting our work and increase our online fundraising. We also need that person, or persons, to optimise our website profile on the Internet to drive more views to our website. This will hopefully lead to more people becoming members of the charity and making donations to the charity via our website and social media pages.

Volunteers are matched up on a one-to-one basis with a vulnerable adult. The matches meet regularly either weekly or fortnightly for a few hours at a time. The aim is to engage in purposeful activities within the community which will help to reduce social isolation and feelings of loneliness. It is also about continuing to support the adult to engage in their own community and have positive social connections.

Dundee Healthy Minds Network is a group set up to ensure that people with a lived experience of mental health difficulties are involved in the development of Dundee’s mental health service. We have a twice weekly drop in to provide a more informal and relaxed opportunity for people to discuss wider mental health issues with like minded individuals. We have various activity groups (Arts & Crafts, Guitar Group and Gardening Group. We hope to offer a choir and writing group in the future) and regular events and talks. We are providing a rewarding opportunity for non-judgemental individuals to further develop their skills by providing a friendly face and ear to our network members, supporting social activities, setting up and leading various group projects and learning skills to support adults with a lived experience of mental health conditions to be meaningfully involved in services. Additionally if you have a special skill (art, music/singing, creative writing, gardening, exercise etc) there may be opportunities to start a new group. For those that are interested, there will be times when additional opportunities will present, such as supporting the project coordinator at outreach mental health services when collecting data (for example from questionnaires) and at various awareness raising events.

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.

To ensure that donated items, including furniture, textile, crockery and ornaments ar eclean, safe and ready to be issued to referral clients. - To work within the role and task of a volunteer worker for RAMH - To liaise with the Senior Lifeskills worker / Volunteer Coordinator to identify and agree work that requires to be done to items of furniture and prioritise essential itmes - To undertake these cleaning and repairs safely - To produce a sound quality of cleaning or repair work - Underake other duties as may be reasonably required - To particpate in relevant training as required by RAMH - To be aware of and implement the RAMH philosophy - To help ensure a clean and safe working environment exists withn the warehouse and showroom fo rthe public and volunteers

Garden helpers can be involved with a variety of tasks which could include: gardening (no experience necessary), joinery, cooking, event organisation, creative projects or administration tasks. The exact tasks depend on the season, the weather and individual inclination.