We are looking for friendly and committed individuals to volunteer with older people in our day centres across Edinburgh.  Working alongside staff, the friendship and opportunities volunteers bring can make a real difference.

Tasks of the volunteers:

Volunteers work alongside staff, to spend time sharing social contact and activities.  This valuable contribution helps to ensure that individuals get the best possible opportunity to maintain their interests and community involvement.

Support and training:

All volunteers will take part in an induction to volunteering in Health and Social Care. They will receive ongoing support and will be encouraged to share their experience and ideas.  Other training opportunities include Manual Handling and Client Transportation, Dementia Awareness and Reminiscence.

By contributing time and enthusiasm, volunteers can have fun, learn new skills, form meaningful relationships and make a big difference to those who use our service.

When are volunteers needed:

The Volunteers Development Team are recruiting now. The application/induction process can take 4-6 weeks as we need to wait for an enhanced disclosure.

Volunteers will be needed once a week.

Volunteers are asked for a minimum commitment of 6 months.

Disclosure:

Yes, all volunteers fill out an enhanced disclosure.

Peer mentors needed for substance prevention education for young people and project based youth work.

Tasks of volunteer:

Peer mentors are required to assist in the development of a number of youth based projects.

The Initial project will be supporting a group of 14-16 year olds in a peer-based alcohol project.

This will include delivering alcohol workshops to young people and adults nationally.  Opportunities to develop a new substance based national project will also be available.

Support/Training:

This opportunity is an ideal way to build a portfolio of youth work and substance based education experience.  Full training and support will be provided.

When are volunteers needed:

From July 2010 onwards.  Involvement should be for no less than 3 months.

Is a Police Disclosure required:

Yes.   Support in gaining a disclosure can be provided by Lynne at Community Link.

Lifebuilder works in India alongside the poorest Punjabi communities and empowers them to improve their social and economic wellbeing.  Our holistic and sustainable approach focuses on providing vocational and enterprise training and opportunities, promoting good health as well as providing material donations.

Main aims/objectives

Lifebuilder projects include:

•Empowering poor women to become dairy entrepreneurs
•Providing improved sanitation for villages by constructing latrines and water filters
•Running health camps in villages to tackle common illnesses and diseases and to distribute medicine
•Establishing village level e-learning centers
•Material donations of blankets and uniforms
•English lessons

Tasks of volunteers

Fundraising Assistant

Lifebuilder is a newly established UK charity (though it has been operating in India for some years) and this is an exciting time to help Lifebuilder develop it fundraising capacity here in the UK.

The Fundraising Assistant’s role will help support the small UK fundraising team with their activities, ranging from help with planning events, communications, drafting funding applications, general administrative tasks as well as other ad hoc duties.

Volunteering with Lifebuilder’s small team will provide the opportunity for the Fundraising Assistant to learn about how small International Development NGO’s operate as well as offering them significant opportunities to take the initiative and gain valuable fundraising and administrative experience.

Main duties

a) Process donations and prepare acknowledgement letters and other correspondence
b) Help maintain and update filing systems and the fundraising database
c) Conduct preliminary research on prospective fundraising areas (trusts, community groups etc)
d) Contribute to fundraising publications and direct marketing initiatives
e) Track tax credit donations in the database and keep a file for each tax credit donor
f) Maintain guest lists, gather and prepare registration/fundraising materials and other duties as assigned for fund-raising events
g) Support the advancement of LifeBuilder’s website through timely updates, social media etc
h) Other duties as assigned by the Fundraising Officer or UK Director of Operations

Experience required:

a) Knowledge and experience of fundraising
b) Experience in an administrative position, preferably with a NGO
c) Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel. Skills in desktop publishing would be a benefit
d) Excellent verbal and written communications skills
e) Ability to present information concisely and effectively, both verbally and in writing
f) Ability to organize and prioritize work
g) Ability to work independently with little supervision
h) Excellent interpersonal skills

Their Befriending Service for Parents and Carers is looking for volunteers to volunteer a couple of hours a week. Altogether Better volunteers support parents and carers in South Edinburgh. Health in Mind provides full training and out of pocket expenses.

For more information, please contact Alison McGhee on 0131 225 8508 or alisonmcghee@health-in-mind.org.uk

Cyrenians are looking for young people between the ages of 18-30 to become residential volunteers at city and farm projects. The role involves providing peer support to homeless residents who live in community houses. 

Activities include: cooking a meal for the community, planning a shopping trip, decorating, playing games or accompanying residents to appointments, providing mature and calm advice and sometimes just company to residents experiencing crisis. Emphasis is placed upon working together and developing the residents independent living skills.

Ideal applicants will have the ability to build relationships with young people who can be challenging in their behaviour and act as role models within the community.

We are looking for enthusiastic and creative individuals who are willing to share their interests with others, can stick to boundaries and have the ability to remain calm in stressful situations.

For more information visit www.cyrenians.org.uk or email rcsvolunteers@cyrenians.org.uk

The Main Aims/Objectives of the Organization: To provide a high quality standard of care in an individualistic manner, in an environment that is calming and homely.

Tasks of volunteer: We are looking for volunteers for several areas. We need volunteers to assist in the social aspects of the resident care. They may work alongside one of the activity coordinators or on their own, providing a one to one or group activity. Secondly, we are looking for people to assist in fund raising. And finally, we are looking for people to assist us in maintaining the surrounding gardens. Support/Training: Full induction training provided. On going support from the management team. The home is open 24/7 so volunteers are welcome everyday. Volunteers must go through an enhanced disclosure

Task of volunteer: There is evidence that hearing ‘first-hand’ from someone who has had a mental health problem is a powerful way of
changing public attitudes.  Our Volunteer Speakers will provide talks upon request, in a range of settings, to people about their own
experiences of mental ill-health, with two specific focuses:  the stigma and discrimination that people with mental ill-health face, and how
positive support and recovery has helped them.  Speakers will also be expected to provide introductory information about the ‘see me’ campaign
and its work.

Support/Training: All our Speaker Bureau volunteers are offered a day’s training at the very start.  During this training, we’ll provide top
tips, talk about what you do and don’t want to cover, practise giving talks and answering questions, and give you an understanding about ‘see
me’ and our work.

The main point of contact within ‘see me’ for this Bureau is ourDevelopment Officer (Volunteer Programme).  S/he co-ordinates
recruitment and training of speakers, helps you to prepare your profile for our site and will explain all the practical things you need to
consider when arranging to give a talk.  You should return your feedback forms to him/her and, after any talk, please feel free to phone us if
you want to chat through how things went or discuss your feedback forms.

We assume that you will phone us as much as or as little as you want to.

Main aims/objectives of organisation:

To maintain and support the positive mental health and well being of black and minority ethnic women, Saheylia offers a range of therapeutic, practical and support services.

Saheliyas Befriending Service introduces female volunteers who can provide the female clients with support.

Saheliya is currently looking for Urdu/ Punjabi/ Bengali speaking volunteers.

The Tasks are primarily :
- To offer emotional and practical help
and companionship.
- To increase confidence and self esteem.
- To introduce the client and encourage them to take part in Social activities like going to the cinema, swimming etc.
- To accompany other women to participate in activities in Saheliya.
- Home visits
- Hospital visits

Support/Training Volunteers are selected, trained and supported by the workers at Saheliya, and are asked to give a commitment of two or three hours a week for at least a year. They are recruited according to the needs of the client requirements (generally based on languages spoken).

All befrienders who have been paired with a client receive a token allowance to help the client socialise and also get reimbursed for calls that are made to the clients

WASTE Innovations is a social enterprise whose main aim is to provide a range of eco-friendly and sustainable products, made from waste materials. It is also a sales and marketing platform for the in-house products, services and eco-tourism generated by the various micro-businesses, franchises, and other enterprises that make up the STIRnetwork. STIRnetwork is a social enterprise that was founded in Edinburgh in 2003, S.T.I.R. is short for SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY, INFORMATION & RESEARCH. STIRnetwork is a not-for-profit social enterprise, that functions as a network of micro-businesses working together in pursuit of common objectives. The currently active micro-businesses are: STIRgrafic and STIRart and STIRwood.

STIRnetwork seeks to work with business and the community in pursuit of its objective of developing, promoting and encouraging the sustainable use of resources, to protect and restore our environment. STIRnetwork is especially interested in creating opportunities for those volunteers and community groups who may not be included in mainstream employment opportunities, including the unemployed, the disabled, and the just very keen.

The ethos of ZERO WASTE is the aspiration which underpins all of the STIRnetwork projects:

STIRart

encourages the use of waste, scrap and recycled materials in the pursuit of artistic endeavours.

STIRgrafik

actively promoting paper-free solutions and the use of recycled materials, in both their design work, and their operational and administrative output.

STIRwood

collects waste wood from business and public sector organizations and recycles it into high value, hand-made wooden products which are then put on sale through the WASTE Innovations eco-portal in St. Mary’s Street, Edinburgh.

VOLUNTEERS:

Looking for volunteers to fill various positions within our organization. Volunteers should want to invest their time in a way that will make a difference to both people and the environment.

STIRnetwork is a social enterprise that assists people to manufacture products from recycled materials, as well as helping them to market and sell those products.

VOLUNTEER POSITIONS:

None of these posts require a minimum commitment or consistent working hours but they do all offer basic travel and subsistence expenses.

Student Programme Facilitator

Volunteer Officer

Marketing Apprentices

Public Relations Apprentices

Artist Workshop Volunteers