What volunteering do you do?

[vickster]

Sounds rewarding, interesting and mind-opening.

How do you find out / hear about openings for volunteers ?

Most local councils have a volunteering webpage. Kind of depends what skills you have or want to do.
eg for Suffolk https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/care-and...&entryId=56fcf6aa-d311-59d9-a0c6-f2370a7f0b7d

AgeUK are always looking for volunteers to chat to lonely older folk. Posting on here doesn’t count despite the general demographic

 

[All uphill]

Most local councils have a volunteering webpage. Kind of depends what skills you have or want to do. AgeUK are always looking for volunteers to chat to lonely older folk. Chatting on here doesn’t count despite the general demographic

Are we your charity work @vickster ?

 

[sevenfourate]

I’ve just joined

Most local councils have a volunteering webpage. Kind of depends what skills you have or want to do.
eg for Suffolk https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/care-and...&entryId=56fcf6aa-d311-59d9-a0c6-f2370a7f0b7d

AgeUK are always looking for volunteers to chat to lonely older folk. Posting on here doesn’t count despite the general demographic

I’ve just joined a local group via that link Vickster - thanks. And applied for my first position !!

 

[Big John]

I volunteer every Wednesday for a local bike charity in their workshop, I do a mixture of servicing customers bikes and refurbishing donated bikes which we sell. Really rewarding work and one of the highlights of my week.

https://windrushbikeproject.uk/

Snap. When I retired over four years ago I put one day a week in for our local bike charity. Same type of set up. It's like being a kid working in a sweet shop. It does have it's up and downs though so it's not all fun, fun, fun. I do other work for them at home such as wheel building.

 

[Reynard]

Currently nothing in terms of formal volunteering, other than the odd irregular photoshoot for the Siamese Cat Welfare Trust.

I was involved in my local branch of Cats Protection for close to twenty years, helping out with fundraising (as a buyer for bits for market stalls / raffles etc), running the branch website and lost & found, providing a space for emergency fosters and doing all the photography the branch needed. But just prior to Covid, the longstanding co-ordinator stepped down, and all the people who were on good terms with her, were then quietly shunted to one side. That included me - I wasn't even told my services weren't needed any more, they just went silent on me. I never got a thank you either - not that I expected one, but it would've been nice...

I've also volunteered for the local branch of the Red Cross. It was more my mum's thing, but if I was free I'd go along too, to do the thankless and often rather grim task of sorting out donations.

Slightly more informal volunteering is stewarding or dogsbody-ing at cat shows if I'm not judging. Madam Lexi doesn't enjoy showing, and I quite like days at a cat show, so it's a good thing to do. Plus if I'm in the pedigree section (I'm a household pet judge), I get to learn about all different breeds of cats, and how to handle and present them. It's very rewarding, and I'm always up for free cat cuddles.

 

[Cavalol]

None yet, but applying to help one for the visually impaired and another for homeless families.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I started volunteering in 2019, when I had found a job with less hectic hours than my previous one.
As a second job, I was doing community work for the Co-op, which was a 4 hours weekly paid job, then I started to volunteer with some of the local groups I was working with.
Lockdown came, I lost my main job, the groups stopped operating, I continued volunteering with the food bank doing admin duties wfh.
I work full time again, sometimes 6 days a week so time is restricted but I still do the food bank when I can, and I run a community gardening group.

 

[C R]

I volunteer helping fix donated bikes at a local group on and off.