Do you have the passion and skills to help empower a young person to develop and grow?

The Children’s Society’s Climb project is a preventative service that supports children and young people (10-17) who are at risk of being exploited or exposed to criminal activity. Climb is funded by West Mercia’s Police and Crime Commissioner and works with young people in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. The service aims to reduce a young person’s risk of exploitation by providing them with great role models and positive activities to give them the opportunity to enjoy new skills in a safe environment. 

Our Volunteer Mentors will support these young people and assist them to engage in positive activities. These activities include but are not limited to, sport, crafts, music and dance. Mentors will also be asked to spend a small amount of time with the young person outside of these activities – spending time with them in the community, giving you both an opportunity to talk and listen.

This is a rewarding role and you will be part of a friendly team providing you with support and ongoing supervision. You do not need any specific qualifications as full training for your role will be provided.

Due to the nature of the role, you will need to be able to commit to a minimum of 3 hours per week for a minimum of 6 months. We will do our best to match you with a young person within your area. Expenses are paid.

What will this role require you to do?

- Build a supportive and trusting relationship with a young person.

- Schedule meetings with the young person and undertake different activities of their interest such as music, art, playing football in the park or engaging in school activities.

- Actively listen to them and their views, support them with any issues and encourage the young person to engage with school and other services as appropriate.

- Support the young person to achieve personal goals, obtain skills for the future or apply for educational, employment or vocational opportunities as appropriate.

- Communicate any safeguarding concerns with the Volunteer Co-ordinator or other agencies as appropriate.

- Submit contact notes within 24 hours of each contact/visit with the young person and attend agreed supervision sessions with the Volunteer Coordinator.

What can we offer you?

- Full induction and training for your role with The Children’s Society.

- On-going support and guidance from your Volunteer Coordinator including regular one-to-one supervision.

- Access to a broad range of online learning modules and courses.

- Recognition of your commitment and achievements.

- A reference outlining your achievements.

- Reimbursement of reasonable expenses.

- The experience of volunteering within a frontline team with a charity that has a great national reputation.

- The opportunity to gain an understanding of the issues facing vulnerable young people within your community and the chance to make a positive difference to their lives.

Read Easy Telford and Shropshire East is affiliated to Read Easy UK, a national charity that helps adults learn to read and which has nearly 60 groups across England.

Read Easy Telford & Wrekin was established in 2019 and continues to grow to be a highly impactful local group with an increasing number of Reading Pairs (Reading Coach and Reader).

It is run by a hard-working, dedicated group of team members, all of whom are also volunteers.
The group is now seeking a new IT Supporter.

Role:

Someone with strong IT skills who can advise and support the team on all IT related topics including setting up Microsoft accounts, accessing their email on their various devices and supporting coaches using IT to deliver remote coaching.

What do you need to have?

Who is Sported?

We are the UK’s largest network of community groups supporting half a million young people to overcome barriers to reach their full potential. Sported members are led by an incredible group of passionate and dedicated people who do amazing work in their communities, transforming the lives of young people in neighbourhoods across the UK. Where they often lack support or the time is around their organisation’s development and it’s here where you can make a difference.

What will I get out of it?

You will get to meet the inspirational faces of community groups across the UK and immerse yourself in their work; use your existing skills in a rewarding fashion whilst developing new ones; guide members to become more inclusive; network with other like-minded individuals helping grassroots sports groups survive; and so much more.

Our volunteers say that making a positive difference to our members is what they most enjoy about volunteering at Sported.

What will I do as a Sported volunteer?

You'll use your professional skills and lived experience to help groups overcome operational challenges, become better equipped for the future, and tackle inequality in sport. 

Most of our roles are quite flexible and work around your schedule. We do our best to only share opportunities we think are relevant to you. With most of our volunteering support being delivered digitally, it’s even easier to get started supporting members across our network.

Travel expenses in line with our policy are covered in the instances in-person meetings occur.

Our roles include:

Short-term placements - Focused on one topic area or specific challenge, placements usually last about 6 sessions.

Long-term placements – Placements span a series of months and encompass multiple topics, or a single complex subject.

One-off support – Kickstarts are semi-structured, informal chats to learn more about a group’s strengths and challenges, and recommend a course of action.

Specific project work, facilitating/delivering webinars and training, or supporting Sported itself plus much more!

We are a Christian charity that collects unwanted usable tools, refurbishes them, sorts them into trade tool kits and sends them to the developing world for livelihood creation.

Community Champion volunteers: 

The main role of a Community Champion is to help raise support in their community for TWAM. This will mean organizing events (or finding people to organise them) such as coffee mornings, quiz nights, open gardens and all sorts of creative ways to fundraise.

It means keeping an eye on what is going on in the community and perhaps finding people to enter sponsored events such as fun runs, 10Ks, walks for TWAM.

It means keeping an eye on what is going on in the community and perhaps finding people to enter sponsored events such as fun runs, 10Ks, walks for TWAM.

It will include working with our other volunteers to arrange events such as TWAM evenings with coffee and cake or a buffet.

Community Fundraisers need to be people with big ideas and the energetic enthusiasm to see them through.

What will you be doing?

You will work within your local community, Church, or community group to promote TWAM and help raise the funds we need to keep the tools flowing.

You will organise events of all kinds or find others to do them for you, from music nights to traditional coffee mornings.

You’ll get pull-up banners, leaflets, resources and loads of support from everyone at TWAM from the Volunteering Coordinator and the Fundraising and Communications Officer to your local TWAM Tool Ambassadors and Community Ambassadors.

What are we looking for?

Passionate, energetic people who can organise things and get things done, and people who can identify others and mobilise them to organise events.

We really need people who can work as a team and really get stuck into the very exciting role.

What difference will you make?

We always need people to collect tools and refurbish them, but without the funds to run our vans and keep our Refurbishment Centres operating, nothing would happen. Shipping to Africa costs a lot of money and again, we need the funds to do it.

This is why the Community Champion is so important, and this is the difference you will make, because nothing happens without the people willing to ask for the funds to run the charity.