With the vaccination programme rolling out and scaling up we have had a number of requests about local volunteering roles to help with this… and about other volunteering available in these extraordinary times.
Volunteers
There are a number of ways you can volunteer locally.
As we are now a few weeks into a national lockdown, it’s good to know that volunteering is still permitted, in fact in times like these it’s needed more than ever! With this in mind many of you have been in touch to ask how you can get involved in the local community.
Of course a number of our 12 Days of Xmas roles fit neatly into this category… but also have you heard of Time to Spare?
Time to Spare is an invaluable local resource which allows you to advertise your skills and experience online to local organisations as well as giving you the opportunity to see the roles that are recruiting now.
They also send regular volunteering alerts with requests from local groups looking for volunteers, often one-off roles that are in urgent need.
For example, this week Cooperation Town is looking for Food Parcel Delivery Drivers, Voluntary Action Camden is looking for someone to accompany a vulnerable person to medical appointments and C4WS Homeless project needs 3-5 cooks to to cook food on site for their ‘Friday Club’ Covid-19 secure take away soup kitchen for the homeless in King’s Cross.
You can check out Time to Spare here and also the Coronavirus page here.
There are also a number of other COVID volunteering roles available on our online database, Simply Connect. (Hot tip: To search for COVID volunteering, put ‘COVID’ in the keyword box.)
You can also join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook where we feature news and events about volunteering locally which may just be what you are looking for.
In addition to this, volunteers are needed for the following:
- NHS Volunteer Responders (Community Response Volunteers, Check in and Chat Volunteers, Vaccination Stewards)
- St John’s Ambulance (Volunteer Vaccinators, Vaccination Care Volunteers, Vaccine Patient Advocates)
- Camden’s Mutual Aid Groups: Check out the Camden MAGs Facebook page which coordinates all of their local support. They say, ‘This is a group set up to help coordinate support in the London Borough of Camden. We will be looking to help people access food, complete errands etc – particularly those who are elderly, disabled and/or immunocompromised. Please share with people looking to help each other out during the Covid-19/corona virus pandemic.’
Organisations
Stay Safe!
It’s worth following NCVO and keeping up-to-date with their guidance around COVID-19 volunteering on Twitter or the coronavirus page on their website. This includes:
- Working With Staff
- Involving Volunteers
- Delivering Your Work
- Getting Funding
- Governing Your Organisation
- Safeguarding in Voluntary Organisations
Remember also that we give support to organisations that involve volunteers, so feel free to contact our Best Practice Manager Shafia for a one-to-one phone or video call. We also have regular Volunteer Managers’ Forums for peer support and networking. This is always helpful, but especially so when most of us are navigating our way through delivering our work in different ways.
Volunteer Recruitment
The best way to recruit COVID-19 volunteers right now is by registering with Time to Spare. It’s quick and easy to sign up and there’s a ‘pool’ of volunteers with skills and experience to choose from.
We will of course update this when we get any relevant info. Stay safe, stay healthy!
