Volunteers

There are many youth clubs and children’s services in Camden. Support for children and young people can include things like mentoring, befriending, sports coaching, nursery playworkers and art project assistants.

Safeguarding children and young people is very important, so many of these roles require DBS checks and safeguarding training.

Volunteering for organisations that support older people can include befriending schemes for isolated elderly people, and many organisations rely on volunteers for one-to-one contact as a telephone buddy, visitors or drivers, help with practical tasks or hosting social events for groups.

Volunteering roles in IT can include everything from website maintenance and development to hardware and software maintenance, software development, teaching children to do coding, database management as well as helping older people to use their digital ‘gizmos and gadgets’.

Good admin is the backbone of all organisations, voluntary or otherwise! Most projects require excellent admin to keep track of progress made and to make it easier to submit quality reports on time.

This is also a good way to get ready for the workplace or to keep your work skills up to date.

Many people who choose to volunteer with services that give support in this area have lived experience of drugs and addictions and / or know someone who has. Often the services overlap with others, such as working with young people, homeless or mental health projects.

Others may want to use this experience to see if this is an area of health and wellbeing that they would like to get into for paid employment.

Every year for International Women’s Day we highlight the many ways that people can support women and girls locally in Camden.

Opportunities include preparing the future generation of women by volunteering with Girl Scouts, giving support to victims of domestic violence in projects and shelters which support women at their most vulnerable, giving therapeutic support to women as well as mentoring women with business skills.

There are a number of local services which support local homeless people including preparing and serving meals on the street and indoors, leading activities for local residents in hostels, giving a warm welcome and a friendly chat to those who are visiting a drop in as well as organising and distributing food via local food banks.

Retail volunteering gives you the opportunity to exercise your customer service skills as well as your creative flair for putting together a fabulous window for a local charity shop. You may also choose to stick with ‘back room’ support and sort through clothing and other donations.

Catering can include things such as preparing meals for the homeless as well as various projects around the borough including students attending local training. Most catering roles will offer food safety training.

Camden is very lucky to have so many world-class museums and libraries such as The British Museum, The British Library as well as local heritage arts and cultural venues such as The Jewish Museum, The Dickens Museum, Sir John Soane Museum, the Foundling Museum and Lauderdale House to name but a few. Roles can include things such as stewarding for exhibitions, meeting and greeting guests, assisting with education programmes as well as taking part in events such as Open House and London Design Festival.

For many of us, volunteering is more attractive the closer it is to home, work or study. You can search for local opportunities by postcode, get involved with your local community centre and all of the projects that they host including providing food for local people and families via food banks and getting active with a local mutual aid group which have been an essential part of the COVID-19 response.

Helplines have always been an essential way for people to get support in their time of need in a confidential way. Local services include supporting older people and those who identify as LGBTQ. A number of services that were previously delivered face-to-face are now being delivered via Zoom, Skype, Facetime or phone. This provides an essential continuity of support to those who need it the most in the time of COVID-19.

Camden has a number of excellent volunteering roles to support the local wildlife and environment including weekly outdoor group activities to get fit and keep Camden green and beautiful with Heath Hands and TCV Green Gym as well as maintaining local community gardens such as Waterlow Park, teaching visitors to Hampstead Heath about the local wildlife and helping Camden to become carbon neutral.

It’s safe to say that COVID-19 has affected almost every aspect of life in Camden and beyond. And with this in mind many services are being delivered differently to maintain safety of those who provide services and the service users themselves. Mutual Aid groups have sprung up, as well as food distribution services such as local food banks and Kentish Town Community Centre’s ‘Happiness Hampers’ which are given to families with young children in partnership with local primary schools. Whatever the new normal looks like volunteering will continue to play a part in the local community as it always has.