voluntary work

alliyo

I have been unemployed for years now for one reason or another, but would love to do something though dont know what!
I was wondering if anyone knows anything about voluntary work? uk only, and just to get me geared up to go back to some kind of work,
I live quite near a hospital so that would be good, even walking round with a tea trolley would be good!! I have done searches but just cant find out much about registering.
I have also put my name down to work in local charity shop for starters!

any help info appreciated thanks

Lakeuk

Good place to start is http://www.timebank.org.uk/

alliyo

Lakeuk wrote: »

Good place to start is http://www.timebank.org.uk/

Thanks for the link........signed up, registered, awaiting reply!

Savvy_Sue

If you don't get a response from timebank and are still waiting on the local possibilities you've found, ask at your local library if there is a local volunteer bureau / organisation who might be able to point you to local things.

If you are near a school (and like children!) then they sometimes want volunteers to hear children read.

Hospital trollies and shops are often run by the WRVS: they may also do Meals on Wheels, and it looks as if you can apply online!

Note that many voluntary groups take time to start using you: we invite people to come to a session where we tell them what we do and how we do it. Then they have to fill in an application form, and we take up references and do a CRB check. Then we interview them, and finally we let them loose! Actually we don't even do that: we slot them in for their first few sessions alongside experienced volunteers and see how they get on!

Some people get frustrated by that: they want to start next week. But we do have a difficult client group, and it's not fair on either volunteers or the clients to throw people in at the deep end, before they know what they're doing and before we've had a chance to check them out ...

It is always worth thinking about things you've enjoyed doing in the past and would enjoy again: we can use volunteers as cooks and office staff, shoppers and visitors. Some people love one bit of it, but hate others.

Enjoy! I can confirm it's a good way to get skills for employment!

LittleVoice

Another web site for volunteering is https://www.do-it.org.uk

alliyo

thanks Savvy_sue, some good and useful information and tips on there!

thanks LittleVoice, i have registered on the site, which looks very good and helpful,
Cant wait to get started! I know it will take time to get things going but at least with all the help from here i have made a start,
THANKS