Volunteers can do almost anything! From helping out at a nature reserve to mentoring young people, from coaching your local sport team to providing advice and support for a charity, volunteers make a vital contribution to all aspects of community life.
Where to start?
Before you start searching for volunteering roles, you may want to spend a moment thinking about:
- What do you enjoy doing?
- What’s the main reason you want to volunteer (e.g. do you want to feel more connected to your local community; contribute your skills; help others; help a good cause while doing something you enjoy; improve your skills or maybe learn something new)?
- What would you like to do?
- What type of organisation do you want to get involved with (e.g. those working with a specific age group; working with animals; supporting outdoor activities; sports club etc)?
- When are you free, how often do you want to volunteer and how far can you travel?
Where to look?
Volunteer Centre East Sussex advertises local volunteering opportunities on the national online database Do-It: www.do-it.org.uk. We upload new opportunities every week and currently there are more than 800 available across East Sussex. You can search do-it from our website using:
- Your postcode
- How far you want to travel
- Area of Interest
- Type of Activity
On-line search engines can be a little bit tricky, so we have developed our own Tips for searching the Do-It website If you have specialist skills, or you’re interested in specialist roles you can also try other websites:
- For people looking for trustee and committee member volunteering opportunities: www.trusteenet.org.uk/jobs-search
- For people with specific skills who want to volunteer their time and talents: www.reachskills.org.uk/available-opportunities
- For young people aged 14-25 www.vinspired.com
Can’t find what you are looking for?
You can also contact your local village hall, community or information centre to find out if there are any local initiatives in which you could get involved. Or contact Hastings Voluntary Action (HVA), Rother Voluntary Action (RVA) or 3VA (Eastbourne, Lewes District and Wealden) to ask about organisations in your area that you are interested in and to obtain their contact details. You can then approach an organisation in your area of interest to see if you can create a volunteering role for yourself! Keep an eye on your local paper for volunteering-related events in which you could get involved and look out for our Ask the Expert sessions with Volunteering Champions, coming to your local library soon. If you’ve tried all this and you would still like to talk to someone about volunteering, call us on 01323 301757 or e-mail info@vces.org.uk.
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