VOLUNTEER COLUMN: Volunteers vital for important services

As you will see from the opportunities we are highlighting this week, while most charities have paid staff to manage and co-ordinate things, the services themselves are often delivered by volunteers, while community groups and organisations are often run completely voluntarily.

So you can see that by giving just a few hours of your time you really can make a massive difference to the services that are provided and to the communities that benefit from them.

Town and village coordinators – Carers Support West Sussex

Carers Support helps carers from all communities across West Sussex by providing practical information and emotional support.

The town and village coordinators will coordinate community outreach and engagement initiatives, work to increase Carers Support’s presence in the community and build relationships with individuals, community groups and other organisations in support of their work.

Outreach coordinators will directly contribute to increasing name awareness in the community and increasing community support for the organisation.

Information and advice advisor – Age UK West Sussex

Age UK West Sussex Information and Advice (I&A) service provides information and advice to older people on matters such as welfare benefits, health and social care, housing and local services.

This role involves assisting clients across a wide range of enquiry areas, and is an interesting and varied role as the volunteer will be helping to provide information and advice to individual older people and their carers.

No specific previous experience or qualifications is required as training and on-going support will be provided, however you will need to have excellent listening and communication skills, empathy, a good standard of literacy and numeracy, good IT skills and the ability to work confidently on own initiative and know when to seek help and support.

Volunteer member – Littlehampton and District Lions Club

The aim of the Littlehampton and District Lions Club is to help people of all ages who are less fortunate than themselves through a wide variety of fundraising events and some hands on projects.

They need to recruit some new members to bolster the membership.

Members would be required to assist at local fundraising events throughout the year, such as fetes, carnivals and Christmas collections.

No experience is required you just need to have a caring nature and a good sense of humour.

Club meetings take place at Worthing Rugby Club on the first Tuesday of each month but other events can take place at any time throughout the year.

Workshop presenter – Enable Me Project

Enable Me works in the local area to raise disability awareness in the community and in the workplace, to help improve the lives of disabled people and to provide opportunities for disabled people to fulfil their potential.

They need passionate, enthusiastic people with a willingness to learn to work as part of a small team in delivering disability awareness workshops in schools and workplaces.

If you have an inspirational story to tell and would feel comfortable working with children and presenting in a group setting then please get in touch.

• For more information on any of the above roles, please call Volunteer Now! on 01243 864220, or visit www.do-it.org. For bite-sized volunteering of ten days or less please visit skillshare-westsussex.org.uk

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