Volunteer Roles in East Ayrshire

About Pain Concern

Pain Concern is a charity providing information and support to people with pain and those who care for them, whether family, friends or healthcare professionals. Visit our website to find out more about what we do, including our Airing Pain radio programme, Pain Matters magazine, information helpline, community pain education sessions and our research and campaigning work.

All pain is unpleasant, but for the 7.8 million people in the UK living with long-term pain it is a part of everyday life. It diminishes quality of life more than any other condition, leading often to loss of work, depression and disability. Anyone at any age can develop persistent pain and you will very probably know somebody affected. Although there is usually no cure, people who receive the appropriate treatment, information and support can manage their condition effectively with life changing results

Role purpose We are looking for an enthusiastic volunteer to help us get ready for changes in Workers’ Rights Act legislation and communicate these in an affective way. This would be a great opportunity for someone who is studying in the field of HR or someone is recently qualified and looking to gain some experience. This will be a short-term voluntary role initially.

What you would be doing

• Understand the legislation changes and communicate the impact to the operational team

• Make any updates to policies and induction materials as per legislative changes

• Co-design training for employees and volunteers 

• Maintain and update training trackers

Is this role right for me?

We are looking for an individual who possesses some, or all of the experiences, skills and qualities listed below:

• CIPD Qualified or working towards the accreditation

• Ability to handle sensitive information with confidentiality and professionalism.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite

• Good written and verbal communication skills

• Proactive and self-motivated with the ability to work independently and as part of a team

Availability and location

• Minimum 2-4 hours per week

• Volunteer from our office at Newcraighall Road, Edinburgh EH15 3HS or from your own location

Benefits to you

• Opportunity to meet new people

• Experience volunteering as part of a friendly team

• Satisfaction of supporting a valuable service in the community

• You will receive support from a dedicated line manager

• We can reimburse your travel and lunch expenses in line with our Expenses Policy

How do I apply?

For more information, please visit our website.

About Pain Concern

Pain Concern is a charity providing information and support to people with pain and those who care for them, whether family, friends or healthcare professionals. Visit our website to find out more about what we do, including our Airing Pain radio programme, Pain Matters magazine, information helpline, community pain education sessions and our research and campaigning work.

All pain is unpleasant, but for the 7.8 million people in the UK living with long-term pain it is a part of everyday life. It diminishes quality of life more than any other condition, leading often to loss of work, depression and disability. Anyone at any age can develop persistent pain and you will very probably know somebody affected. Although there is usually no cure, people who receive the appropriate treatment, information and support can manage their condition effectively with life changing results

Role purpose

We are seeking highly motivated individuals to join our social media team to help raise awareness of chronic pain and the work of Pain Concern to reach more people in need of the support we offer.

What you would be doing

• Help develop social media campaigns and day-to-day activities;

• Manage presence in social networking across all platforms;

• Prepare graphics for sharing across channels

• Monitor the impact of social media campaigns; Analyse, review and report on effectiveness of campaigns in an effort to maximize the charity’s reach.

• Scheduling and posting social media content 

• Capture and report on monthly data from across all social media platforms

Is this role right for me?

We are looking for an individual who possesses some or all of the below experiences, skills and qualities.

• Excellent communication skills

• Good knowledge and understanding of social media platforms

• Knowledge of marketing

• Strong IT skills and knowledge of MS Office

• Attention to detail

• Knowledge of / interest in pain and long-term conditions 

Availability and location

• Minimum 2-4 hours per week

• Volunteer from our office at Newcraighall Road, Edinburgh EH15 3HS or from your own location

Benefits to you

• Experience volunteering as part of a friendly team

• Meet new people

• Build on your employability skills

• Training and a dedicated volunteer line manager looking after you

• A job reference after 3 months of volunteering.

• Satisfaction of giving a valuable service to the community

• On-site car parking

• Reasonable travel expenses will be reimbursed in accordance with our Volunteer Policy

How do I apply?

For more information, please visit our website

Description

The LGBTQ+ Telephone Group is a chance for blind and partially sighted people who identify as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community to come together for mutual friendship and support. The facilitator is a pivotal role within the group ensuring the group runs smoothly and that everybody has a chance to contribute to the group conversation as well as ensuring everybody’s welfare and flagging up any potential safeguarding concerns. You should either be a part of the LGBTQ+ community or be a strong ally who is committed to helping provide a safe space for participants to come together to share their experiences. We are looking for someone to run an additional LGBTQ+ telephone group during daytime office hours. You will be: Helping to ensure that participants feel comfortable and facilitate discussion. Helping group participants to feel safe to be in the group and to enable them to join in the group discussion each month. Looking after participant welfare within the group and flagging any welfare or safeguarding concerns to Talk and Support for follow up.

How often will I be needed?

• 2 Hours per Month

Key requirements

• 2 references 

Description

Our Talk and Support team is setting up a monthly group for blind and partially sighted musicians to share their musical creations. In the role of facilitator, you will contribute to the group to ensure that all participants feel comfortable and have the space to express themselves. You will be: Helping to ensure that participants feel comfortable and facilitate discussion. Helping the group participants to feel safe to be in the group and enable them to take part. Looking after participant welfare within the group and flagging any welfare or safeguarding concerns to the Talk and Support team for follow up.

How often will I be needed?

• 2 Hours per Month

Key requirements

• Two references

Description

Our Talk and Support team is setting up a monthly telephone group for blind and partially sighted people who are interested in discussing mindfulness and wellbeing. In the role of facilitator, you will contribute to the group to ensure that all participants feel comfortable and that the group runs smoothly. You will be: Helping to ensure that participants feel comfortable and facilitate discussion. Helping the group participants to feel safe to be in the group and enable them to join in the group discussion. Looking after participant welfare within the group and flagging any welfare or safeguarding concerns to the Talk and Support team for follow up.

How often will I be needed?

• 2 Hours per Month

Key requirements

• This role requires one reference.

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

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 an enthusiastic and skilled funding grant writer? Be a part of our small but committed team as a pro-active grant writer volunteer for a small national charity supporting people affected by a debilitating pain condition.

We are looking for 2 skilled grant writer volunteers who can take the lead in researching appropriate funds and writing grant bids to help us continue offering our support services and resources and helping us create new programmes and services to support patients and their families who have been affected by a poorly understood chronic condition; Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).

As our Grant Writer you will be responsible for identifying appropriate grant opportunities, and managing the grant development and proposal process from research to submitting grant applications with any supporting documents.

As our grant writer, you will:

• Identify appropriate sources of funding where we fit their criteria 
• Write appropriately tailored grant/funding bids that meet funders’ interests and requirements and to write any additional documents in support of funding bids
• Help develop a Trusts and Foundations strategy to help create and maintain strong and diverse income that meets Burning Nights CRPS Support’s funding needs
• Create a calendar of grant deadlines and track submitted funding proposals
• Help us develop a case for support 
• Report on grant usage and impact
• Review all grant/bid feedback and ensure knowledge is shared, so that learning informs us for future approaches to grants

If you are an experienced grant writer or you just enjoy researching and persuasive writing then we would love to hear from you.

We are looking for a volunteer who has:

• Experience of being a grant writer, project proposal writer and editing skills
• Excellent writing, analytical, and research skills are essential
• Creative and persuasive written and spoken communication skills 
• Self-motivated and highly-organised
• Ability to work remotely
• Ability to search online databases and other sources to identify appropriate funds
• Ability to understand and appeal to funders’ differing needs
• Ability to organise your own work, track and report back regularly 
• Experience setting up funding email templates (desirable)
• Ability to quickly understand the needs of our organisation  and our service users
• Understands the resource constraints of a small charity and can work with these
• Open to feedback
• Ideally have good network with people, organisations and charities which can help us to support our projects
• Determination to get the job done

Skills

• Project proposal writing
• Grant writing and knowledge of charity grant giving culture
• Good networking skills and contacts with grant giving organisation
• Marketing and communications
• Content writing and story-telling
• Good online fundraising skills
• Good editing and proof reading skills and attention to detail
• Team player who is comfortable working with various volunteers within Burning Nights CRPS Support to collate information required to write funding applications

If you don't have the exact experience, but are interested to volunteer with us, please apply! We would be thrilled to find out about how your interests and experience match with our needs or what we are doing.

Other Information

This role is done remotely using Zoom, Slack and email. You would be working closely with the charity’s Chair and with other trustees. However we would have regular updates and remote meetings as needed so we know you are getting the support you need.

We have an induction process that will help successful applicant to understand how our Charity operates and full support of all our volunteers.

Minimum of 3-6 hours per week for this role

Ideal commitment of 3 months or more (but not specific)

Description

Our Talk and Support team is setting up a monthly telephone group for blind and partially sighted people who are interested in music. In the role of facilitator, you will contribute to the group to ensure that all participants feel comfortable and that the group runs smoothly. You will be: Helping to ensure that participants feel comfortable and facilitate discussion. Helping the group participants to feel safe to be in the group and enable them to join in the group discussion. Looking after participant welfare within the group and flagging any welfare or safeguarding concerns to Talk and Support for follow up.

How often will I be needed?

• 2 Hours per Month

Key requirements

• This role requires one reference.

Discipleship Ambassador (Voluntary part-time)

ETS is a small but growing UK based Christian charity, which is looking to expand its discipleship and evangelism training throughout the UK and the English-speaking nations.

We are looking for a person of faith who can identify with our aims; a mature Christian who is comfortable in networking with Church leaders.  Although this is a voluntary position, we anticipate that this role may be salaried at some point in the future.

As an ETS Ambassador, you will be our first contact to many pastors and leaders in both the UK and to other English-speaking nations. Therefore, your main role is to open doors and to reflect our passion and ability to make disciples of all nations, through our unique one-day training and manuals.  Once the door of opportunity has been opened, we can take over and explain in more detail. 

As our ETS Ambassador, your role will involve reaching out to churches to promote our discipleship and evangelism training. This will be by targeted emails, letters, and phone calls, which will be backed up and supported by our Admin and Fundraising Officers.

ETS is based in Peterborough, and we expect any applicant to work from home/remote (hybrid) along with attending meetings over zoom. We will only interview applicants who are UK based. There may be occasional team meetings at Allia Business Centre, Peterborough, but traveling costs will be reimbursed, along with phone calls and other approved expenses.

Salary: This is a voluntary role and you are expected to pay your own taxes (if applicable)

Hours of work: This is a part-time role and we will negotiate the hours per month, but these can be carried out at different times during the week.

We would require a commitment of three months, with the possibility of extension.

Safeguarding: Appointment will be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Description

Our Talk and Support team is setting up a monthly telephone group for blind and partially sighted people who are interested in gardening. In the role of facilitator, you will contribute to the group to ensure that all participants feel comfortable and that the group runs smoothly. You will be: Helping to ensure that participants feel comfortable and facilitate discussion. Helping the group participants to feel safe to be in the group and enable them to join in the group discussion. Looking after participant welfare within the group and flagging any welfare or safeguarding concerns to Talk and Support for follow up.

How often will I be needed?

• 2 Hours per Month

Key requirements

• This role requires one reference.

Irish in Britain is the national membership body for Irish community organisations and Irish individuals in Britain. To help us to achieve our aims and ensure the organisation is effectively managed we are seeking professional and inspiring new members to join our Board of Trustees.  Board level experience is essential as is a shared understanding of the values of Irish in Britain. We would be particularly interested to talk to you if you have senior level experience in the following fields:

                                                                            Public/Health Policy

                                                                            Culture/Heritage

                                                                            Finance Management

As the national body representing Irish community interests in Britain, we understand that effective equality, diversity and inclusion practice helps a board to make better decisions. We are actively seeking to bring more diversity of perspectives and experience to our Board and welcome applications from all candidates regardless of ethnicity, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation or religion.

Overview of the role

We are an exciting team that aim to design and develop fantastic programme for all members of our organisation. We have several ongoing pieces of work and upcoming projects that enable volunteers to get stuck right in and have real impact. You will have a part in designing programme, see it develop and then watch it reach local Scouting.

We will provide support when inducting you into the role, engage you in an exciting project and then help you on your next steps as a volunteer at the end of the project. This is a great opportunity for those who have never volunteered at Headquarters to give it a go. We would love to see plenty of new faces!

What would I be doing?

This role will be working as part of the Programme Design Team to facilitate work on one of our short-term projects. You will be joining one of our Project Cohorts. After applying, we will review applicants’ skills and experience, before selecting a group to work on a particular project with set goals. 

Our upcoming projects will be aiming to develop our top-quality programme. This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in innovative and impactful programme design. Each project is anticipated to last for 3 months. Once your project is complete, we will support you in your next steps as a volunteer. This could include inviting you to apply to join the Programme Design Team on a long-term basis. 

Hello and thanks for looking at our advert! If you are eager to use your talents to contribute to a more equitable society and keen to be part of a dynamic, evolving, values led charity, we would love to hear from you!

Access Social Care is a legal rights charity that exists to make sure disabled people, older people and carers get the social care they need. We educate so people can confidently use legal language to improve their lives. We make sure people can access justice when things do go wrong with legal casework and an online tech product. We gather data and evidence to drive system level change to work towards a future where everyone gets the social care they need.

We are currently seeking three trustees who can align with our organisational culture and values; who are passionate about social care and access to justice; and who can bring fresh perspectives, skills and expertise to help us achieve our goals and maximise our impact.

We are especially interested in people who reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. With this in mind, we particularly welcome applications from candidates with direct experience of drawing on social care, as well as candidates from the Global Majority, older and disabled people, and people from the LGBTQ+ communities.

We are particularly interested in receiving applications from individuals with experience or knowledge in the following areas:

· Lived experience of drawing on social care or experience of the communities we serve, especially individuals who have experience as ambassadors or campaigners on behalf of these communities

· Sales, Business Development, and Marketing

· Financial Strategy, Investment, and Growth

· Communications and Campaigning

If this sounds like you, then please take a look at our Trustee Recruitment Pack!

To arrange an informal chat about the role please contact us

To apply, please send a copy of your CV with a covering letter addressing the requirements set out in the Trustee Recruitment Pack. 

Closing date is midnight on Wednesday 16th October 2024 and the selection process will be held during the weeks commencing 4th November and 11th November. Please refer to the trustee recruitment pack for specific dates.

Please note, successful applicants will need to be available to travel to the January board meeting on the 28th January fir an overnight stay in order to attend meetings until 5:30pm on the 29th January.