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Wide Range Of Volunteer Opportunities Available

Published on: 30 Mar, 2022
Updated on: 30 Mar, 2022

For anyone who is looking to spend some time volunteering in the community, there are currently plenty of options available.

Here are some latest roles being promoted by Voluntary Action South West Surrey, the charity that supports people who wish to volunteer and well as helping organisations who need volunteers.

Watts Gallery – Artists Village, Compton

Gallery stewards: They make all the difference to every visitor’s experience at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village. Stewards give a warm welcome, introducing the galleries as well as the family resources and activities available. By talking with visitors, stewards help visitors to learn about and enjoy the story of G F and Mary Watts and get the most from their visit.

Shifts last two hours and 15 minutes and the recommended commitment is one shift per week. Volunteers are welcome to sign up for more than one shift in a row. The minimum commitment is two shifts per month.

For more details send an email to Celia.Hodges@wattsgallery.org.uk

Reconnections Guildford and Waverley

Helping older people who are lonely: Reconnections is a service for people who are over 65 and struggling with loneliness. It introduces friendly volunteers to residents and connect them to local activities, gatherings and events that provide vital social connections and help break the cycle of isolation. They are looking for dedicated volunteers to give just one hour a week to make a real difference to someone’s life.

These are some of the things that Reconnections volunteers have been doing in 2022:

Getting to know an older person over a cuppa and discover their old interests. Making enquiries with a local swimming club that supports people with mobility issues. Encouraging a resident to attend a local thai chi class. Attending a walking football group with them. Teach someone to use Zoom so they can live stream their church service.

If you are interested in becoming a Reconnections volunteer, click here for an application form or contact Gemma Jones, on 01483 654421.

RHS Garden Wisley

There are a number of volunteer roles the garden is currently recruiting for. Here are three of them.

Library Volunteers: https://www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/roles/wisley-library-volunteers (Closing date: April 5)
Moth Identification Volunteers: https://www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/roles/wisley-moth-identification-volunteer (Closing date: April 6)
Visitor Services Volunteers: https://www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/roles/wisley-visitor-services-volunteers (Closing date: April 10).

Click here for more details of volunteering opportunities at RHS Wisley.

The Spike Heritage Centre

Spike Lives Family History Project researchers: The Spike is the community centre and the preserved casual ward of the former Guildford Union Workhouse in Charlotteville, Guildford. Spike Lives is a heritage research project that is chronicling the lives of inmates living in the Guildford Union Workhouse during the 1881 census – and those lives are fascinating!

247 individuals, aged from one month to 96 years. Vagrants, criminals, labourers, gardeners, domestics, laundresses, unemployed or unemployable, schoolchildren, ill, incapacitated…

How had they ended up there? Why had they fallen on hard times? What’s their backstory? What happened next?

The Spike is welcoming volunteers to help complete its project. All it asks is that you have experience of family history research with access to the Surrey
History Centre and / or to Ancestry or Find My Past, etc, and can write a good story.

The Spike is putting a website (www.spikelives.co.uk) to record the findings and tell the stories of these people and the lives they led.

For more information, send an email to heritage@charlotteville.co.uk

Barnardo’s

Volunteer family befrienders:  This role provides a great opportunity to join Barnardo’s fantastic children’s services and help make a real difference.

The Surrey Parent Wellbeing Service (based in Leatherhead) aims to provide early support to parents or carers of children and young people across Surrey who are experiencing poor wellbeing.

This may present as feeling lonely, feeling isolated, feeling unhappy, or anxious, having low mood, or experiencing stress. This can come from a wide variety of situations, including being bullied, exam pressures, not getting on with parents/carers, and peer pressure. Parents and carers may also experience anxiety and worries when their child has poor wellbeing.

Volunteers to take on the role of befrienders and offer peer-to-peer support for new families entering the service either on a one-to-one basis or in small groups, face-to-face or ‘virtually’.

Befrienders act as a point of contact for families who are struggling with social isolation or need help to engage with support services.

To apply, click here.

Or phone Barnardo’s Surrey volunteer co-ordinator Peter Butterworth on 07596 891166, or email him at  peter.butterworth@barnardos.org.uk

There are lots more volunteer opportunities listed on Voluntary Action South West Surrey’s website. Click here.

You can also drop into Voluntary Action’s office at 39 Castle Street, Guildford GU1 3UQ, Monday to Thursday, 10am to 3pm. Email: volunteer@vasws.org.uk or phone 01483 504626.

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