Volunteer Roles in South West

 Home-Visiting volunteers are an essential part of the Home-Start in Suffolk service – providing emotional and practical support to a family, in the family’s own home, once a week.

As a volunteer, you will be carefully matched with a family, then introduced by one of our experienced staff team.  A unique support package will be devised based on the needs of the family and a day and time for each weekly visit will be agreed to suit both you and the family.

You will build a trusting professional friendship with the family, offering emotional support, guidance and practical help during your visits, sharing your own experiences, with the ultimate goal to empower families with the confidence and skills to cope alone once support ends, creating a legacy of a long term difference.

No experience is needed as full training is provided.

You will make weekly contact via telephone or video call for up to 1-hour, providing emotional support and a listening ear for our families based in Suffolk.  Perhaps sharing your own experiences, to help families navigate through a challenging time.

 Telephone support is a great way to give back even when your time is limited. Telephone and virtual support can suit full time work as well as company volunteering opportunities. It is flexible and can fit in around your other regular commitments allowing you the chance to get involved and give back to your community in Suffolk at a time that suits you and the family you are supporting.

No experience is needed as full training is provided.

We host a range of groups across Suffolk from Stay & Play, infant massage and Special Education Needs,  to groups for Military families, cooking workshops and pre- and post-natal support. Group volunteers play a key role in the running of these sessions, providing additional support to the attending families and helping with group-based activities. 

No experience is needed as full training is provided.

Why we want you

We are looking for people to support us with our admin tasks at our centres

You will be involved in admin tasks such as data input, this helps us to keep our records up to date.

What you will be doing

• Provide support to the team to input data
• Add information to databases specific to the team you are volunteering with

The skills you need

• Good communication and interpersonal skills
• An understanding of Microsoft programmes e.g word, excel

Are you passionate about protecting the public from unsafe, unethical practise and misinformation? If so this may be the role for you.

We are currently recruiting two Independent (Lay) Members to our Fitness to Practise (FtP) Referral Panel, to support the upholding of the high standards of practise expected of UKVRN registrants (Registered Nutritionists and Registered Associate Nutritionists).

The Panel will assess cases regarding FtP concerns to determine whether these should or should not be escalated to an FtP Investigation Panel.

The FtP Referral Panel members shall review referred complaint/concern cases and complete a report with outcome recommendation. When a unanimous decision has not been reached on the outcome recommendation, an online meeting will be held.

Members will attend one annual (online) meeting to audit cases and outcome decisions in order to produce annual reports. The meeting will be held online for 2 – 3 hours and the Panel will normally require about half a day’s preparation/reading time. Additional time may be required to follow-up/ feedback.

The number of referrals a year vary, but a review will normally require 2-4hrs for reading and report submission. A consensus meeting, if required, will normally take place online for 1-2hrs.

Please read the Terms of Reference document for the eligibility criteria, role, responsibilities and person specification ahead of applying.

We would be particularly interested to receive applications from those with experience in one or more of the following areas:

· Legal

· HR

· Regulation

· Public Communications

About our charity

Everyone deserves to live their life to the full, with maximum choice and control.  Our purpose is to make that a reality for young people with vision impairment and complex needs.  They face a multitude of barriers because of the combined impact of a vision impairment with other disabilities and support needs.  We enable each person to find their unique pathway towards their very best life, using our specialist expertise and knowledge.

Our charity is now looking to recruit new trustees to help shape this vital work.

Plans to develop our board

We are specifically seeking one or more trustees with a good knowledge and experience of adult social care.  As well as the normal duties of a trustee, you would take a specific interest in our adult care service provision – St Davids House (residential care), Jigsaw (day service) and our Supported Living service.  You would scrutinise the quality and operation of our care services for adults and offer advice and challenge to our staff team as a member of our Adult Care Advisory Committee.  You will liaise closely with the Director of Care and Support.

You may have been a senior manager in an adult care service or have been a commissioning manager within the NHS for people with complex care needs.  You will have a passion for great person-centred care.  Experience of CQC would be an advantage.

The Board meets seven times a year and is also invited to all events and celebrations which is optional.  Trustees are warmly encouraged to attend meetings in person, but if required can attend some meetings online.  Expenses are paid for travel and overnight accommodation can be arranged for those not local to Devon.

Don’t have the time to become a full trustee?

Don’t have the time to become a full trustee?  We also have a role of Advisory Member on all our committees.  Advisors are appointed by the Board.  This role allows us to access knowledge and experience about running a charity, specialist SEND education and adult social care, but you do not have to take on the full role and responsibility of a trustee.  If you would be interested in finding out more about this role, please contact us.

About our charity

Everyone deserves to live their life to the full, with maximum choice and control.  Our purpose is to make that a reality for young people with vision impairment and complex needs.  They face a multitude of barriers because of the combined impact of a vision impairment with other disabilities and support needs.  We enable each person to find their unique pathway towards their very best life, using our specialist expertise and knowledge.

Our charity is now looking to recruit a trustee with finance expertise to help shape this vital work.

Plans to develop our board

We are specifically seeking a trustee who can take on a lead role on the Board in relation to finance.  As well as the normal duties of a trustee, you would take a specific interest in finance at InFocus.  This will include being the lead trustee for the annual audit and for the budget setting process, and having a detailed knowledge of our funding sources and expenditure through scrutiny of the management accounts.  You would liaise closely with the Director of Operations and attend the Business Affairs Advisory Committee of the Board.  You would also be a member of the Board of our trading company.

You will have financial knowledge from an accountant or finance director role, and preferably a knowledge of charity accounting.  Experience of statutory fees,  local authority commissioning and charitable service provision would be an advantage but are not essential.

The Board meets seven times a year and is also invited to all events and celebrations which is optional.  Trustees are warmly encouraged to attend meetings in person, but if required can attend some meetings online.  Expenses are paid for travel and overnight accommodation can be arranged for those not local to Devon.

Don’t have the time to become a full trustee?

Don’t have the time to become a full trustee?  We also have a role of Advisory Member on all our committees.  Advisors are appointed by the Board.  This role allows us to access knowledge and experience about running a charity, specialist SEND education and adult social care, but you do not have to take on the full role and responsibility of a trustee.  If you would be interested in finding out more about this role, please contact us.

Why we want you

We are the RSPCA and it's our vision to live in a world where all animals are respected and treated with compassion. Our volunteers are incredible, they play an essential role in helping us carry out our important animal welfare work every day.

Our fosterers play a vital role by providing a temporary home for animals that are in the care of the RSPCA, either during rehabilitation or whilst they are waiting for a suitable permanent home to be found.

You could be fostering an animal for just a few weeks, or it could be a longer-term placement for several months or more.

What you will be doing

• Providing care and suitable housing in a safe environment for dog/s while they are in foster care in accordance with Society policies and guidelines
• Feeding, watering, exercising, providing enrichment and grooming dog/s (as appropriate)
• Keeping accurate records of expenditure on fostered animals, via receipts and completed expense forms
• Completing records/daily observations in relation to behaviour and health and liaising with your Foster Coordinator when needed
• For dogs ready for rehoming: raising awareness about animals in your care with the hope of rehoming them (including sharing images and videos with your local contact/team)
• For dogs' subject to an RSPCA case: using discretion (where needed) if the animal has specific needs or reasons for being in your care
• Transporting your foster dog for appointments, vet consultations, behaviour training etc

The skills you need

• Volunteers must be aged 18 or over
• Experience of caring for dogs is desirable
• Previous experience of fostering would be beneficial
• You will need a secure garden and plenty of time to spend with the dog/s
• Your family/household must be fully supportive
• If in rented accommodation, permission from the landlord must be obtained
• If you have existing dogs it is preferred that they be spayed/neutered (unless there are medical reasons why they can’t be), but this can be discussed on a case by case basis
• If you have existing dogs, multiple greets/bonding sessions between the dogs must take place

What's in it for you

• Meet like-minded people and get to know more about the work of the RSPCA
• Add an important animal welfare role to your CV
• A great induction and training relevant to your role
• Support from our local and national teams
• You’ll be making a huge difference to the welfare of animals

Disclaimer

Our voluntary roles are subject to an informal interview and introductory period. Before you can start volunteering you’ll need to complete our suite of eLearn training including a simple online Health & Safety assessment. 

Trailblazers’ mission is to reduce re-offending and inspire new futures. Your support will help a young man to reconnect with his community, friends and loved ones, go into education, training and employment, and give a person a sense of hope for the future.

Trailblazers has been providing mentoring services to people in prison since 1998 with ultimate aim to reduce re-offending. We provide support to men between the age of 18 - 35 in custody who have 6 months left of their prison sentence, and then 'through the gate' into their own community for up to 12 months. The Education, Training & Employment (ETE) team supports our mentees in custody to break down barriers to employability. Post-release, this continues by supporting mentees to gain meaningful and career changing roles in sector specific industries such as Construction, Engineering, Catering & Hospitality or the Self-Employment route. 

The ETE team are looking to build a team of volunteers to work with mentees in the community and to shape the existing ETE service in the Thames Valley area. We are looking for volunteer mentors who can commit for up to 12 months and give a few hours a week to support men to change their life by being inspirational role models, helping with goal setting and supporting their mentee to access ETE opportunities and ultimately gain meaningful employment. Mentoring sessions will be 1:1, take place weekly and can be done remotely by telephone or online. These sessions will last approximately one hour, but some time should also be given to liaising with Trailblazers staff and researching relevant opportunities. 

Induction training is provided, out of pocket expenses covered, a mobile phone is provided to protect your identity, a Trailblazers T-shirt and lanyard are provided, DBS costs are covered, as well as regular reflective practice sessions to support you within your role. 

We are actively looking for people to join our mentoring community with lived experience of the criminal justice system, under represented groups from BAME community, creative arts, business skills, wellbeing - whatever your skills and background we are open to hear from you to support our diverse group of men. 

Trailblazers are looking for Volunteer Mentors who are:

• Empathetic with a positive outlook and manner.
• Able to help others without judgement or discrimination.
• Excellent communicators with a sense of humour.
• Well organised, can prioritise and multi-task.
• Reliable and able to commit to the role for up to 12 months providing weekly ETE sessions remotely either by telephone or via Zoom / MS Team digital platforms.
• Have skills and experience in supporting those who are disadvantaged into education, training and employment (ETE).
• Able to work independently with the ability to prioritise and manage your own workload with minimal supervision taking a flexible and creative approach to the demands of the post.
• Able to demonstrate sensitivity to other cultures, working with people from other backgrounds and demonstrate a commitment to equal opportunities.

Relif

Relif is a modular platform designed to improve the coordination and management of humanitarian responses during crises and disasters. It focuses on key functionalities such as enabling real-time information sharing and enhanced coordination among local organizations.

Local organizations often face significant challenges in responding to emergencies and disasters due to a lack of proper tools and coordination. This gap leads to inefficient resource allocation, duplication of efforts, and delayed assistance, ultimately putting more lives at risk.

Relif provides a modular platform designed to empower local organizations in emergency management. The platform enhances information management, enabling real-time data sharing and coordination among organizations during crises. This helps reduce inefficiencies, such as duplicated efforts and delayed responses, ultimately allowing these organizations to respond faster, allocate resources more effectively, and save more lives in disaster situations. Through Relif, we aim to build a more resilient future by addressing the entire emergency management cycle, with a focus on preparedness, capacity building, and public policy influence.

Are you ready to make a real impact?

We’re thrilled you’re considering joining the Relif team! As a part of our volunteer community, you’ll be directly contributing to a platform designed to change lives by supporting local organizations in crisis and disaster response. This is more than just volunteering; it’s an opportunity to be part of something meaningful.

At Relif, we believe that every action counts, and with your skills and dedication, we can build a stronger, more resilient future for communities around the world. Whether you’re coding, designing, or brainstorming new ideas, your work will have a lasting effect.

Let’s create something amazing together!

Fundraising Specialist

Volunteer Role Description (remote, unpaid)

Relif is seeking a passionate Volunteer Fundraising Specialist to help us expand our impact. We're building free digital tools that help communities better respond to emergencies, and we need your expertise to sustain and grow this mission.

What You'll Do:

• Develop and execute fundraising strategies
• Build relationships with potential donors
• Help create compelling campaign materials
• Support our online donation campaigns
• Contribute to donor communications

Perfect For Someone Who:

• Has experience in fundraising or development
• Is passionate about humanitarian technology
• Can commit 5-10 hours per week
• Is comfortable with remote work
• Has strong communication skills
• Loves to be part of a fun team :)
• Speaks English (Spanish and Portuguese are a plus)

Why Join Us:

• Make a real impact on emergency response
• Join an innovative humanitarian tech organization
• Gain valuable nonprofit experience
• Work with a global, passionate team
• Flexible, remote working arrangements

About us:

We're building free digital tools that help local organizations better manage emergencies. Our platform enables communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises more effectively.

Weekly Time Commitment

7-9 hours per week

Duration of Volunteer Role (remote)

6+ months

Relif

Relif is a modular platform designed to improve the coordination and management of humanitarian responses during crises and disasters. It focuses on key functionalities such as enabling real-time information sharing and enhanced coordination among local organizations.

Local organizations often face significant challenges in responding to emergencies and disasters due to a lack of proper tools and coordination. This gap leads to inefficient resource allocation, duplication of efforts, and delayed assistance, ultimately putting more lives at risk.

Relif provides a modular platform designed to empower local organizations in emergency management. The platform enhances information management, enabling real-time data sharing and coordination among organizations during crises. This helps reduce inefficiencies, such as duplicated efforts and delayed responses, ultimately allowing these organizations to respond faster, allocate resources more effectively, and save more lives in disaster situations. Through Relif, we aim to build a more resilient future by addressing the entire emergency management cycle, with a focus on preparedness, capacity building, and public policy influence.

Are you ready to make a real impact?

We’re thrilled you’re considering joining the Relif team! As a part of our volunteer community, you’ll be directly contributing to a platform designed to change lives by supporting local organizations in crisis and disaster response. This is more than just volunteering; it’s an opportunity to be part of something meaningful.

At Relif, we believe that every action counts, and with your skills and dedication, we can build a stronger, more resilient future for communities around the world. Whether you’re coding, designing, or brainstorming new ideas, your work will have a lasting effect.

Let’s create something amazing together!

Grant Writer

Volunteer Role Description (remote, unpaid)

Help Us Transform Emergency Response Through Technology Relif is seeking a skilled Volunteer Grant Writer to help secure funding for our mission of providing free emergency management tools to local organizations worldwide.

What You'll Do:

-Research and identify relevant grant opportunities

• Write compelling grant proposals and applications
• Help develop project budgets and timelines
• Track application deadlines and requirements
• Support impact measurement documentation
• Collaborate with our team to gather necessary data

Perfect For Someone Who:

• Has proven grant writing experience
• Understands the humanitarian/nonprofit sector
• Can commit 5-10 hours per week
• Excels at storytelling through writing
• Is detail-oriented and deadline-driven
• Is comfortable working remotely
• Speaks English (Spanish and/or Portuguese is a plus)

Why Join Us:

• Apply your skills to meaningful social impact
• Join an innovative humanitarian tech organization
• Build your portfolio with international projects
• Work with a passionate, mission-driven team
• Flexible, remote working arrangements

About Relif: We're developing free digital tools that empower local organizations to better manage emergencies. Our platform enables communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises more effectively.

Weekly Time Commitment

7-9 hours per week

Duration of Volunteer Role (remote)

6+ months

Travel Radar provides high quality and relevant news across the Commercial Aviation & Air-Travel sectors. Having grown rapidly since 2015, we've gone on to become one of the leading providers of Aviation News available online. With an ever-growing remote team of over 50 staff, we bring exciting and interesting travel news 24/7 from around the globe to a reach of over 20 million users.

Our mission to change how travel is seen involves showing people how to make their journeys as fulfilling as possible through providing the latest news and how to improve journey quality.

We're on the lookout for a Social Media Manager to head up a range of exciting work including:

• developing creative and engaging social media strategies for our platforms;
• managing the day-to-day handling of all social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube, adapting content to suit different channels;
• overseeing, planning and delivering content across different platforms using scheduling tools such as Buffer and Meta Business Suite;
• developing, launching and managing new competitions and campaigns that promote Travel Radar and the brand;
• forming key relationships with influencers in the aviation and air-travel space across the social media platforms;
• managing and facilitating social media communities by responding to social media posts and developing discussions;
• researching and evaluating the latest trends and techniques in order to find new and better ways of creating and measuring social media activity;
• managing, motivating and coaching junior staff such as social media executives or assistants;

We're on the lookout for someone who can totally own the work Travel Radar does across social, developing the BEST content across the platforms we operate on. We have strong roots in social, and a loyal community, with UNLIMITED potential to grow the work currently being done. You might be a BSc/BA student fresh out of Uni with ideas, an experienced social mastermind looking to tackle a new challenge, AvGeek that loves the community or perhaps a current student looking to 'learn on the job' and get stuck in. Regardless to your background, if this sounds like a good fit, we'd love to hear from you!

Please Note: This role is voluntary (unpaid) at this moment in time but you will have a small budget for campaigns, access to the latest tools and a personal range of perks to benefit from:

�� Flexible workload - give time as and when you can each month

��Fully remote - we can supply a laptop/desktop device or virtual machine if required

�� Lunch & Travel Expenses covered for physical working (such as attending events and conferences)

✈ Discount Program with 3000 retailers from travel to shopping to car insurance

�� Great Training and Learning Resources including a fully funded CPD Level 3, 5 or 7 accreditation

�� Latest Tech including free Office365, Grammarly Premium, Adobe Photoshop and Canva Pro. These may be used both for Travel Radar and personal work

Commitment per Week: 2-5hrs per week

Reports to: Chief Content Officer

Is this the year you'd like to support your community by volunteering? Do you have some great financial skills you are willing to share? Then we'd love to hear from you at Share and Repair?

We are looking for a new Treasurer for our collaborative and robust board which is driven by our values and mission, including our unrelenting focus on supporting our community to reach net zero.

Share and Repair is a small, award-winning,  fast-growing charity in Bath and North East Somerset and beyond, acting as a catalyst to change behaviour through practical action and education to  reduce carbon, waste and landfill and improve the environment. As a result we reduce pollution, create community cohesion and improve lives whilst saving people money and space.

Our projects encourage people to reduce, repair, reuse and learn.

We do this through 5 key projects:

⭐Repair Sessions and Cafes that offer affordable mending
⭐ Sharing resources through a Library of Things
⭐ We educate through HOW TO workshops and Schools’ Workshops
⭐ We repair and test small electrical items to give free to low income families and individuals through our HomeKIT programme.

To deliver this we have 3 full-time equivalent staff and over 250 volunteers.

As a Share and Repair trustee, you would be joining a talented board and supporting an outstanding team and army of  volunteers.  We take great pride  in our achievements to date and are very proud of our recent King’s Award for Voluntary Service.

We are keen to hear from someone who cares about the environment and would like to ensure we remain financially compliant and resilient.

About us

POhWER is a charity providing advocacy, information and advice to support to people who, because of disability, illness, social exclusion and other challenges, find it difficult to express their views or get the support they need.

POhWER was established in 1996 by a group of inspirational individuals who were fighting social injustice and challenges in their own lives and sought equal access to information, and a voice of their own. This remains at the heart of everything we do.

Today, our mission remains significantly impactful and relevant at a time when human rights and entitlements are being tested and challenged. We continue to empower people by ensuring that their voices are heard. We want to make a real difference to our beneficiaries’ lives by speaking for them when they can’t, and supporting them to speak for themselves when they can.

Skills and Experience

We are seeking to appoint two new Trustees to join the Board at this exciting phase. You will be part of a committed and forward-thinking Board, acting as a “critical friend” to the Executive Team and offering clear governance oversight to the charity. You will have the exciting opportunity to help support the planning and implementation of our Strategy from 2025 onwards, and to help develop and shape our long-term business plans.

POhWER is particularly interested in candidates who can offer expertise in one of the following areas:

• Involvement in the social care/advocacy sector and with experience of the local authority and commissioning environment;
• Experience of HR, typically at executive or board level.

You will add value to our existing Board by bringing dynamism and challenge to the way that POhWER is seen externally, and to give us authority of truly representing the people we serve.

You will bring an inspiring leadership approach, together with a dedicated knowledge in one of the areas as sought, to complement the skills of the existing Board.

We encourage candidates who can contribute greater diversity and who will be fully aligned to our vision and values.

Terms of Appointment
Duration
• The Term of Office is currently three years, renewable up to a maximum of six years.

Commitment
• Typically averaging 1 day per month;
• Four Board meetings per annum and one strategic Trustee Away Day;
• Attending as a member of one of POhWER’s Board Committees which are held twice yearly. The Board Committees are Finance, Audit and Risk, Fundraising and Income Generation, People and finally Nominations;
• Attendance at the AGM
• Undertaking of occasional projects as part of a time limited Task and Finish Group

Location
• All meetings with the exception of AGM and Trustee Strategic Away Days are held remotely via electronic means

How to Apply
Please submit your CV to along with a covering letter indicating your interest in POhWER.

Other
A DBS check and references will be required