Carer Support Volunteer Volunteer Roles in Manchester

ANIMAL FOSTERER

RSPCA OXFORDSHIRE

We are looking for animal-loving volunteers to play a vital role in helping us improve the wellbeing of our furry friends whilst they wait to be rehomed. Can you help them by providing a calm and caring home whilst we find their perfect fur-ever home?

Overview of the opportunity

As an animal fosterer, you would be supporting the RSPCA in providing either our cats, dogs, and rabbits the safety of your home whilst tending to their welfare needs such as feeding and grooming. In addition to this, by providing a temporary loving environment, you will play a crucial role in their wellbeing and socialisation, which will significantly improve their chances of successful rehoming.

Once everything is in place, our Operations Manager will guide you through the fostering process and ensure that you have all the necessary equipment, food, and veterinary care for your foster. The RSPCA is also happy to reimburse any other pre-agreed expenses that you may incur through volunteering for us.

Whilst our animals are in your foster care, you will:

• Provide them with care, suitable housing, and a safe environment as per our policies and guidelines.
•  Feed, water, and groom them in line with our advice.
• Transport them to any veterinary appointments if required.
• Provide them with your time and patience.
•  Help us spread the word about the animals in your care so they might find their forever home quicker.
•  Playing and cuddles are also a must!

we are looking for in a volunteer Fosterer

• Volunteers aged 18 or over who have had plenty of experience caring for animals.
• Fostering experience is beneficial but not essential as training is provided.
•  Fortheir wellbeing, the whole family should be on board with fostering an animal.
•  Any existing pets or animals need to have been spayed/neutered (some medical reasons may mean they cannot be so, please let us know if this is the case).
•  Any existing pets must be vaccinated.

 What we can offer you as a volunteer Fosterer

• You will be making a massive difference to the welfare of the animals in your care.
•  Join a community which will enable you to meet new people and make new friends.
•  Learning new skills through our comprehensive induction and fostering training programme.
• Enhance your CV by adding your volunteering experience and newly acquired skills.

It is worth mentioning that our animals do have different needs as whilst some are ready for rehoming others may require rehabilitation or ongoing medication. Therefore, we also aim to understand your situation and circumstances to ensure that we match you with your perfect foster animal.

Our voluntary roles are subject to an informal interview and trial period. We will ask you to provide contact details for two referees, and dependant on the position, you may need to sign an agreement and undergo specific training before starting the role.

We are looking for 3 experienced creative professionals who will enjoy planning, updating and delivering the content for our website, as well as other digital and print materials. We are looking for 3 skilled professional who can write compelling and persuasive content, who will help ensure a consistent tone across all our digital and printed communications to promote awareness and engagement.

We deal with a wide range of people and professions, which means that it can be difficult to consistently communicate with everyone effectively. Therefore, a communication and marketing volunteer will help to market our projects, services and the condition more widely than we are currently able to do. This includes creating and helping to distribute marketing materials, creating content for the Burning Nights CRPS Support website and helping us create and develop a communications and marketing strategy.

Key Tasks and Objectives

• Copywriting: Create well-written and compelling copy for use in leaflets, packs, one-page/fact sheets, fundraising/promotional materials, membership packs and on our website
• Case study writing and storytelling: Help communicate our impact via stories and case studies that we can use on our website, in marketing materials, or for our fundraising materials
• Web copywriting: Create and update engaging content for our website that adheres to our brand

· Email/E-Newsletter content: Write compelling email content for our various e-newsletters that is relevant and has clear call-to-actions. This will be in conjunction with our email marketing volunteers

· Communication materials review: Review our existing communications materials. Recommend edits that will provide us with consistency in writing style and tone, accurate spelling and grammar, and a clear and engaging voice for our organisation. Evaluate the way we communicate with volunteers, members of the public and helping us to develop better ways of doing this

· Social media snippets - create information and case study snippets for the various social media platforms

· Press Releases and any content that could be used in different channel

· Brochure/annual review writing: Create or update copy for a brochure or our annual review, highlighting our impact current and potential stakeholders

Family Lives operate a free confidential helpline for anyone experiencing difficulties in their family or relationship.

Our volunteers take calls from parents and carers on a wide range of subjects, whether that might be issues around separation and divorce, isolation, depression, bullying and abuse, dealing with behavioural problems, etc. You can find out more about our services on our website.

We are a national service with home-based call takers county wide and we also have a call centre in Old Hatfield Hertfordshire. Once trained volunteers sign up for a weekly 4-hour shift comprising 3 hours ‘online’ followed by a debrief session with your supervisor which can lasts around half to one hour. 

We recruit volunteers with a range of backgrounds and experiences though we ask that volunteers have experience of parenting or working with children and young people, are good listeners and have a willingness to learn. Being remote it will be very important that you have a PC/laptop, plug in headset with microphone, good Wi-Fi and a private place to work from home. 

You need to be a UK resident.

Our training programme is excellent and will give you the opportunity to develop the skills needed to offer empathic support and guidance to callers whatever their circumstances; all shifts are overseen by a regular shift supervisor who provides ongoing remote support. We ask our volunteers to make a commitment of 1 year (with time off for holidays), obviously we understand that circumstances sometimes make that an impossibility but can be helpful to know at the outset that is the general expectation. 

We have call taker training sessions that run over five sessions and is done remotely connecting you via a Microsoft Teams link.

You would need to be able to attend all five sessions from one of these remote training groups and be available on four occasions to listen into calls, this can be organised remotely.

Remote Call Taker Training Dates:

January 2025 training dates:

Module 1 – Wednesday 22nd January

Module 2 – Wednesday 29th January

Module 3 – Wednesday 5th February

Module 4 – Wednesday 12th February

Module 5 – Wednesday 19th February

10am to 2pm

Please note that all roles offered are subject to a satisfactory DBS being obtained, you will receive details of documentation required prior to your training and this must all be in no later than the second session of your training.

Dog Fosterer – LU1-LU7 or MK45

Many of the dogs in our care have never experienced life in a loving, family home. Can you help them avoid longer in kennels, providing a calm and caring environment whilst we find them a PAWesome forever home?

As a dog fosterer, you would be supporting the RSPCA in providing our dogs with the safety of your home whilst tending to their welfare needs such as feeding and grooming. In addition to this, by providing a temporary loving environment, you will play a crucial role in a dog’s wellbeing and socialisation, which will significantly improve their chances of successful rehoming.

Once everything is in place, the animal centre will guide you through the fostering process and ensure that you have all the necessary equipment, food, and veterinary care for your fostered dog. The RSPCA is also happy to reimburse any other pre-agreed expenses that you may incur through volunteering for us.

Whilst our dogs are in your foster care, you will:

•  Provide them with care, suitable housing, and a safe environment as per our policies and guidelines.
•  Feed, water, and groom them in line with our advice.
• Transport them to any veterinary appointments if required.
•  Provide them with your time and patience.
• Help us spread the word about the dogs in your care so they might find their forever home quicker.
• Playing and cuddles are also a must as well as a comfy bed! 

What we are looking for in a volunteer Dog Fosterer

•  Volunteers aged 18 or over who have had plenty of experience caring for dogs.
•  You will need a secure garden and plenty of time to spend with our dog.
•  Fostering experience is beneficial but not essential as training is provided.
•  For their wellbeing, our dogs need the whole family to be on board and supportive.
• Any existing pets or animals need to have been spayed/neutered (some medical reasons may mean they can’t be so, please let us know if this is the case). 

What we can offer you as a volunteer Dog Fosterer

• You will be making a massive difference to the welfare of the dogs in your care.
• Join a community which will enable you to meet new people and make new friends.
• Learning new skills through our comprehensive induction and fostering training programme. 

Enhance your CV by adding your volunteering experience and newly acquired skills.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
It is worth mentioning that our dogs do have different needs as whilst some are ready for rehoming others may require rehabilitation or ongoing medication. Therefore, we also aim to understand your situation and circumstances to ensure that we match you with your perfect foster dog.

Our voluntary roles are subject to an informal interview and trial period. We will ask you to provide contact details for two referees, and dependent on the position, you may need to sign an agreement and undergo specific training before starting the role.

Dog fosterers need to live within the Branch Area LU1-LU7 or MK45

You will be put in touch with our dog fostering coordinator who will be able to answer any questions and guide and support you through the process.

Family Lives was formed over forty years ago by volunteers with the aim of ensuring that all parents had somewhere to turn before they reach crisis point.

Remote Family Support Volunteer – Live Chat

We know that the right support at the right time makes all the difference. Family Lives provides targeted early intervention and crisis support to families who are struggling.

Organisational values:

Mission: We build better family lives together.

Vision: Families should have access to active support and understanding. 

Values: Trustworthy, Compassionate and Collaborative

Purpose of the role: To be part of a flexible team providing empathic, caring and informed support to families, carers and others who use our services.

Live chat: is a free confidential service that is accessed via our website. Service users are offered emotional support, information and advice and guidance on a broad range of family issues.

Supervised by: The Shift Supervisor

 Activities: The volunteer will be fully supervised, supported and trained to provide the following activities:

·Provide emotional support to family members via our live chat service

·Use the Family Lives support model and tools to provide an empathic responses

·Ensure that all service users receive a high quality experience

·Sign post users to other agencies for information and additional support

·Complete conversation data records

·Alert the shift supervisor to any difficult situations

General: Volunteers should be willing to:

·Attend the relevant volunteer training

·Maintain confidentiality and adhere to the other policies and procedures of the organisation

·Participate in regular support, supervision meetings and learning sessions as agreed

For home based volunteers only:

·Volunteers will need a Laptop/PC, plug in headset with microphone, fast broadband and a private place to work from home

·Volunteers need to be IT/PC literate and confident troubleshooting should they have technical difficulties

 Time: We would be looking for volunteers to commit to one four-hour shift per week, plus attending training and supervision.

Location: working remotely from home

 You need to be a UK resident

Supervision and Support:

·Supervision during shifts

·Debrief after every shift

·1 to 1 supervision every 6 months

·Staff available outside of shift within office hours

·Annual review

The Benefits of Volunteering:

·Satisfaction in making a real and lasting difference to families who are struggling

·An opportunity to develop experience for CV and references. Family Lives is committed to helping volunteers develop their own learning and development, gaining new skills, knowledge or work experience

·Being part of a team of Family Lives volunteers and staff

·Personal development

·Opportunities to meet and interact with a wide range of people

·Out of pocket expenses reimbursed to a maximum of £10 per session if working from a centre

·Flexible hours

Volunteer Person Specification. We are looking for individuals who:

·Have experience of parenting/being in a parenting role or demonstrable experience of working with parents or children e.g. in their work, previous volunteering or a previous role

·Have an ability to respond empathically to emotional content

·Good written and verbal communication

·Have good keyboard skills and IT skills, with a minimum of 50 wpm

·Can demonstrate a willingness to question their own attitudes e.g. toward different forms of parenting

·Have a fluent, descriptive and expressive use of English

·Can remain open minded and non-judgemental

·Willing to commit to work within Family Lives’ policies, in particular our Confidentiality Policy and Risk of Harm Procedures

·Willing to commit to attending regular supervision and support sessions

·Willing to work as part of a team

·Willing to commit to a mutually agreed period or ideally a 12 months commitment to the organisation.

Typing Task Prior to Application for Live Chat

Prior to you submitting your application for a Live Chat Volunteer, we will require you to do a speed test, we ask for a minimum speed of 50 words per minute. 

Please take a screen shot and send it across with your application

You can have up to 3 attempts and decide which result you would like to forward as part of your application

Typing task

Go to the website typingtest

You are required to take the one minute typing test recording all of the results (speed, number of errors and adjusted speed).

We have remote voluntary call taker training groups the dates are below are you would need to be able to attend all 5 Modules from the training group.

January 2025 training dates:

Module 1 – Wednesday 22nd January

Module 2 – Wednesday 29th January

Module 3 – Wednesday 5th February

Module 4 – Wednesday 12th February

Module 5 – Wednesday 19th February

10am to 2pm

Please note that all roles offered are subject to a satisfactory DBS being obtained, you will receive details of documentation required prior to your training and this must all be in no later than the second session of your training.

Could you use your social media, marketing and communications experience to raise the profile of a small charity? Help us to increase our social media presence and engagement, generate greatr content and help promote existing activities.

Our charity delivers a range of awareness campaigns and support services to patients, relatives, partners and carers who have been affected by a poorly understood pain condition; Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). We are looking for 2 experienced social media and communications volunteers who are able to develop posts and campaigns from design to inception, create fresh and engaging content, increase engagement and to increase awareness of the charity and of the condition we represent.

Even though we are a small organisation we have big ideas and would like to draw on your experience in the communications world to help the charity deliver engaging content and communications to help us spread our aims and message to all our audience.

What Will You Be Doing?

• Engagement: Help increase engagement, improve the number of followers/likes, create & execute a content calendar
• Content Creation: Produce fresh, branded and engaging content for our social media channels 
• Graphics: Prepare graphics and text for sharing across channels 
• Strategy: Help develop a social media strategy
• Engage with our followers and encourage interaction 
• Manage and maintain social media channels on a regular basis
• Support charity campaigns, marketing, events and fundraising activities by promoting them on our social media feeds
• Use your creative skills to devise strategies to engage, grow, and widen our target audiences
• Develop publicity materials and communication techniques for social media to raise awareness of our chronic condition 

You will be working with a small team of volunteers who will provide an overview of our existing social media content, our brand and how we have approached our social media content to date. 

Experience
We are looking for a volunteer who has experience in:

• Different types of marketing and communications media, including electronic and social media
• Writing and editing marketing content for social media platforms including Facebook, X, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn (especially TikTok and YouTube)
• Building strategies to increase social media following and /or build fundraising or awareness campaigns
• Developing a coherent brand voice for social media, from content creation to community interactions
• Using and setting up tools such as Buffer, Canva etc
• Creating and executing content calendars to help plan social media activity 

Skills Required

• Excellent written communication skills
• Accuracy and attention to detail 
• Creative writing and design abilities
• Good computer and digital skills
• Enthusiasm for communications and marketing and willingness to learn
• Ability to quickly understand the needs of our team / organisation / users
• Ability to transform small snippets of information into interesting and engaging stories suitable for X, Facebook, Instagram etc.
• Understands the resource constraints of a small charity and is able to work with these
• Open to feedback 
• An interest in helping Burning Nights CRPS Support achieve its aims
• Good organisational skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills, and able to work as part of a team

What Difference You Will Make
You will join the charity during a critical and challenging period and your expert knowledge and experience will be invaluable to our success. You will have a key role in ensuring we can maintain our support services and become a sustainable charity to allow us to fulfil our aims.

Benefits

You would be a part of our small, friendly and forward-thinking charity team, focused on reaching people who may not have heard about the charity or about the condition. You would have a key role in developing a socoal media strategy for a small charity. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to make a real difference to a rare condition.
You will further develop your communication skills, gain PR and marketing experience and develop your social media skills.

This is a remote volunteering role, volunteering from your own home.

Are you a proactive fundraiser and looking to support a small charity? We're looking for 2 energetic and enthusiastic fundraiser volunteers to increase the fundraising opportunities for the charity as well as developing corporate partnerships, legacy giving, individual giving and major donors. This role may also include:

• Develop new and imaginative fundraising activities, many of which involve organising events
• Project manage fundraising events, from inception all the way through to evaluation
• Recruit and promote supporters and volunteers for challenge and national events.
• Assisting with researching and approaching corporate entities for event sponsorships, partnerships, Charity of the Year partnerships, and donations from corporate foundations
• Assisting with writing and delivering grant proposals for funding to trusts, foundations and other institutes
• Writing emails and speaking with potential partners about the work of Burning Nights CRPS Support with the aim of securing funds for the organisation
• Helping to maintain the fundraising database, ensuring accuracy and consistency of all records;
• Development in fundraising opportunities
• Keeping in contact with current & past donors and assisting in finding new donors
• Communicating with past fundraisers and encourage them to consider fundraising in the future
• Assist in marketing our events
• Development / Improvement of fundraising support (e.g fundraising packs and materials)
• Create marketing posts for social media & email marketing

Key & Desirable Skills:

• Fully computer literate and fully able with the main Microsoft Office tools including Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint as well as the internet and email
• Knowledge of using CRM systems or ability to learn

• Outgoing, friendly and proactive character
• Good initiative and ability to work with little direct supervision but will ask when help is needed
• Be comfortable volunteering within a small team or by yourself
• Good communication skills - Ability to communicate effectively at a number of different levels
• Ability to communicate effectively by telephone, written correspondence and in person
• Experience of writing funding proposals and working in fundraising would be an advantage
• Strong organisational skills
• Knowledge of corporate fundraising techniques including Charity of the Year, sponsorship, donations, marketing would be an advantage
• An ability to present and engage potential partners/sponsors in a compelling way
• Maintaining strict confidentiality

Practical Considerations:

• Age over 18 only
• Expenses will be given in line with the charity’s expenses policy
• It is an indoor role at one site – your home, but occasionally meetings are held in other offices and in the office of the charity or online
• This role is suitable for people wanting to learn new skills as well as improve previously learnt skills

Not sure if you have the right skills? Then contact us or apply as you may have some great translatable skills that would be applicable for this role!

About the Charity: Burning Nights CRPS Support is a UK wide charity that works to improve life for those living with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), their families, loved ones, carers and friends. As a charity we raise awareness about the condition amongst the public, health and legal professionals by providing CRPS awareness sessions so that patients can be diagnosed quicker to enable treatment to start more rapidly.

Application Process:

Apply on Charity Job with CV and covering letter telling us why you would be a good fit for our charity

Would you like to have fun in your local area and get reimbursed for your time? We are always looking for caring and compassionate people to take out a local child or young person for fun activities.

Right now we are looking for applicants in the South Wales area for a fabulous young person who enjoys marvel, climbing, cinema, food and chats. They would prefer a male, but we have other young people who would fit well with a female volunteer.

Activities can include things like: playing football in the park, trampolining, cinema, food, swimming, climbing, play centres, beach, cycling, board game cafes, escape rooms, circus, shows, concerts, go karting etc.

We reimburse reasonable expenses, including travel, for you and your young person up to around £40 a month.

Preferred experience:
- Driving and use of a car due to sometimes rural locations. (We are unlikely to be able to find you a suitable match if you do not drive.)
- Ability to communicate in English.
- Basic IT skills for completing reports and submitting receipts via an easy to use App.

Benefits:
- Opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.
- Gain valuable experience in supporting children and families.
- Access to online training portal with hundreds of courses. - Access to local authority training.
- All travel and reasonable documented expenses reimbursed.

If you are passionate about helping others and making a positive impact, we would love to hear from you.

Thank you for your interest in supporting Headway – the brain injury association (charity no. 1025852), otherwise known as Headway UK.

This empowering charity has for more than 40 years been improving the lives of individuals and families affected by brain injury.

Whether it is providing a listening ear or expert guidance via our nurse-led helpline; increasing the confidence of brain injury survivors to become more independent with the safety net provided by our bespoke identity card scheme; or supporting a UK-wide network of independent local Headway charities and volunteer-led branches, the work we do changes lives.

About the role

The Chair provides leadership to the charity’s board of trustees, ensuring it operates efficiently and in accordance with the charity’s mission, vision, and values. They oversee governance and support the charity's management in achieving its strategic objectives. A key aspect of this role will be leading the board through a period of modernisation. This requires extensive experience in change management, as well as in building cohesive relationships among trustees, senior leadership, and stakeholders.

A key aspect of this role will be leading the board through a period of modernisation. This requires extensive experience in change management, as well as in building cohesive relationships among trustees, senior leadership, and stakeholders.

Interested?

Download our trustee recruitment pack to find out more about this opportunity.

thank you for your interest in supporting Headway – the brain injury association (charity no. 1025852), otherwise known as Headway UK.

This empowering charity has for more than 40 years been improving the lives of individuals and families affected by brain injury.

Whether it is providing a listening ear or expert guidance via our nurse-led helpline; increasing the confidence of brain injury survivors to become more independent with the safety net provided by our bespoke identity card scheme; or supporting a UK-wide network of independent local Headway charities and volunteer-led branches, the work we do changes lives.

About the role

The Honorary Treasurer plays a key role on the board of trustees, ensuring sound financial management and oversight of the charity’s resources in line with its mission, vision, and legal requirements.

The Treasurer works closely with the Chair, CEO, Director of Finance and Administration and the board to maintain financial stability and sustainability while supporting strategic decision-making.

As the charity undergoes a period of modernisation following an independent governance review, the Honorary Treasurer will be instrumental in leading the financial aspects of this transformation, ensuring robust financial controls, transparency, and the alignment of resources with the charity’s strategic goals

Interested?

Download our trustee recruitment pack to find out more about this opportunity.

The Organisation
PMH is one of the few charities in the UK that specifically helps parents who are supporting a child with mental health challenges and whose needs and impact for positive change are all too often overlooked. In most cases support is focused on the child and parents are left isolated, unaware of what the best approach is and have to try and cope on their own. The impact on families can be devastating. Friendships, social activities, work, school and family relationships can be disrupted. All energy is focused on the one child with their siblings often feeling neglected. For parents, realising that their child is struggling with their mental health, that they might be experiencing anxiety and depression, be suicidal, self-harming or have an eating disorder, is incredibly difficult to come to terms with and accept and they feel totally out of control. They often blame themselves for the struggles their child is enduring. It is the start of an emotional roller coaster, with many finding it hard to cope having nobody to turn to for help and support. 

To find out more about the work PMH do, visit the website.

Person Specification:
Preferred:
•  Lived experience of parenting a child with poor mental health
•  Technology, digital, and/or online community experience

Essential:
•  A passion for the aims of Parenting Mental Health and the energy and skill to balance connection to the founding principles with a sustainable, impactful future focused approach
•  Belief in the power of the parent to effect change in their family
•  Commitment to lived experience working and to developing deeper knowledge, process, and potential of our volunteers
•  Collaborative in approach
•  A proven track record of leadership in either the voluntary, public or commercial sectors
•  Experience of operating at a senior strategic leadership level within an organisation
•  Successful track record of achievement through their career
•  Experience of charity governance and working with or as part of a Board of Trustees

Further Information
For comprehensive information about Parenting Mental Health, the role responsibilities and the person we are looking for, please download the Candidate Information Document.

How to Apply
If you are passionate about joining PMH and believe you have the skills and experience we are looking for, please apply with the following:

•    An up-to-date CV
•    A supporting statement of no more than 2 sides of A4, detailing why you would like to be considered, your relevant experience and expertise and what you think you can bring to the role.

All applications are being handled by our recruitment partner, Trustees Unlimited (part of the Russam group). 

All applications should be emailed to Trustees Unlimited.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Melissa Baxter, Managing Partner - Charities.

Closing date for applications: Monday 20th January 2025 
Interview with Parenting Mental Health: 30th / 31st January 2025 

We look forward to receiving your application. 

Age UK Hillingdon, Harrow and Brent is committed to making later life better for everyone in Hillingdon, Harrow and Brent. We have an active board of Trustees from a range of different backgrounds who continually provide guidance and support to the charity.The Trustee role offers an exciting opportunity to get involved in an engaging, decision making role which contributes to the strategy, financial strategy and day-to-day management of the organisation.

Our existing Board has a diverse range of experience and skills and we are looking to grow and develop these to support the organisation in the future.  We are particuarly interested in hearing from people with experience and/or knowledge of the following areas:

• Financial Management (including investment planning/management accounts) 
• Estate Planning
• Charity Retailing
• Fundraising / Income generation Fundraising

This is not an exclusive list of skills as each new Trustee brings their own valuable skills and experience.  We are keen to develop our Board's diversity and appreciate that the role of a Trustee is new to some people.  If you would like an informal chat about what the role involves please contact us.

Independent Member, Safety Committee

The role of the Independent member is to provide the Safety Committee and the Movement with knowledge and experience for making key decisions. The role is pro bono, but reasonable expense will be paid in accordance with The Scout Association’s Expenses Policy.

Main responsibilities

The remit of the Committee is to support the Board of Trustees to fulfil its responsibilities in relation to Safety by: 

1. providing vision and direction for consideration and endorsement by the Board (as required), by identifying and contributing to the development of safety policies, procedures and guidance; 

2. ensuring that youth members, adult volunteers, parents and staff are engaged in contributing to the development of safety policies; 

3. developing and overseeing a performance framework to ensure that safety policies, procedures and practice are monitored to provide assurance to the Board (relating to members, staff and service users) and use this management information to inform and drive improvements; monitoring the local and national implementation of safety policies and procedures to ensure practice is effective and consistently applied; 

4. ensuring that appropriate connections are made with other areas of the Association’s work that may have an impact on safety (for example Adult Training by using incident data to highlight areas of success or concern); 

5. ensuring that members receive appropriate support and communication to aid understanding of their responsibilities to enable Safe Scouting; 

6. leading the process for Fatal Accident and/or Near Miss inquiries from commissioning through to completion; 

7. reviewing and overseeing actions from inquiry reports (this should be in conjunction with the respective staff functions, particularly where there is specific policy, procedure and/or practice changes that need to be recommended for consideration by the Strategy and Delivery Committee and/or Board (as required); 

8. identifying possible areas of development for the Association’s safety activities, taking into account relevant national agendas and learning from reviews whether this be external or internal to the Association. 

Past or present membership of The Scout Association would be an advantage but is not an essential requirement. What is essential is a commitment to the vision and values of Scouting and the ability to challenge the Association’s policies and practices positively.

Role Title: 

Outreach Assistant

Brief Description:

Supporting animal-assisted intervention visits to venues including care homes, schools, hospitals and community groups

Where:

Visiting services at various locations across Greater Manchester, whilst it is possible to meet us on location assistance with packing and unpacking at our base is always appreciated.
Noah’s A.R.T.

1-9 Borough Arcade, Hyde, SK14 2AA

What’s in it for you?

• The chance to make a difference.

• Enjoy new experiences & develop new skills.

• Excellent training opportunities.

• Reasonable expenses covered.

• Be a part of an amazing team and meet new people.

• Gain experience working with animals.

• Opportunity to meet others who care about animals.

• Improve self esteem and confidence.

• The chance to contribute to the work of Noah’s A.R.T.

• Gain experience of animal-assisted interventions.

• Gain experience working with a wide range of people with differing needs.

• Opportunity to support others.

• The potential to gain the experience needed for a paid position. 

When:

Mondays and/or Fridays

Duration: 

Ongoing

Main Duties:

• Communicate promptly with the volunteer coordinator and lead therapists.

• Work as a team with the lead therapist and other volunteers .

• Support clients to interact with the animals.

• Be friendly, empathetic and attentive to clients’ needs.

• Notify staff as soon as possible if you cannot attend.

• Adhere to all Noah’s A.R.T. policies and procedures at all times.

• Understand that you represent Noah’s A.R.T. when volunteering, and behave respectfully, professionally and courteously to clients, carers, Noah’s A.R.T. staff and other volunteers at all times.

• Take reasonable care to avoid injury to yourself or others and report any accident or injury immediately.

• Take safeguarding seriously and report any concerns to staff.

• Understand that you must not disclose to a third party any confidential information you obtain whilst volunteering which is not available to the public.

• Maintain animal welfare standards during sessions.

• Understand the selection of animals for therapy work and suitability of animals with different clients.

• Promote the safety of the animals during sessions, including allowing them to have the choice to interact or retreat.

• Handle the animals confidently as needed.

• Recognise the signs of stress in the animals and understand how to reduce stress.

• Recognise signs of illness or injury in the animals.

• Be aware of behaviour changes in the animals and report this to Noah’s A.R.T. staff.

• Report any incidents such as nipping, biting, etc. (to self or participants).

About You:

• You have an interest in mental health/animal welfare.

• You have access to email and phone.

• You are polite, approachable, and friendly with good communication skills.

• You can volunteer as part of a team of people from different backgrounds.

• You are committed to equal opportunities and treat all individuals with respect.

• You understand, and commit to, confidentiality.

• You are punctual and reliable.

• You are able to take initiative and adapt.

• You are interested in developing your skills and experiences.

• You are passionate about contributing to the work of Noah’s A.R.T.

Skills & Experience:

ESSENTIAL

• 18+

• Able to manage potentially triggering situations; we visit mental health wards, care homes and eating disorder wards where you may be exposed to dementia or obvious instances of self harm.

• Willingness to engage with challenging clients such as those with neurodiversities or those who may be heavily medicated. 

• Whilst supervision is available you must be confident in your ability to manage your own mental well being.

DESIRABLE

• Driver.

• Knowledge of mental health needs.

• Experience working with children, young people and/or vulnerable adults.

• Animal welfare knowledge.

About Us:

Noah’s A.R.T. is a family-run, community-based, not-for-profit social enterprise. It was founded in 2015 with a mission: to utilise the benefits of the human-animal bond to improve mental health and wellbeing in Greater Manchester. 

• We will provide on the job training, a volunteer induction and access to supervision if needed.

• We also provide invaluable training opportunities in a variety of areas with ourselves and other organisations.

• We will pay travel expenses and other expenses within reason (to be discussed with a member of staff prior to making a claim).

• We provide a friendly and welcoming work environment and are understanding of differing individual circumstances; we try to be flexible where possible in order to accommodate.

• If you have volunteered with us for three months or more we will be able to provide you with a reference.

Other Requirements:

• We ask volunteers to provide two references.

• Some roles require a DBS check.

• Volunteers must be over 14.

• Volunteers are expected to complete the online induction as well as attend relevant training.

• Volunteers must adhere to Noah’s A.R.T. policies, procedures, protocols and guidelines at all times.

Benefits to Noah’s A.R.T.

• Extra support for staff during sessions.

• Extra support for clients during sessions.

• Improved safety of the animals.

• Quicker identification of health issues and risks to/from the animals.