This week’s top five volunteering opportunities

1.Volunteer at Dagenham Farm

Where: Dagenham Farm, Very East London
When: Wednesdays and Sundays
Category: Urban Farm, Organic Fruit and Vegetables
Commitment Level: Ad Hoc (with induction)

Growing Communities is a social enterprise that set up the Dagenham Farm in 2012, following Barking and Dagenham Council’s landmark decision to lease the disused Central Park Nursery site for community food growing. The Dagenham Farm is now one of London’s most productive urban farms – producing over 6 tonnes of organic fruit and vegetables every year in the heart of Dagenham. They’re looking for new volunteers for Wednesday and Sunday sessions – all you need to do is one induction. Visit their website here for further information, or contact former Dot Dot Dot guardian Lucy at lucy.nacsonjones@growingcommunities.org

2. Royal Museums Greenwich

Where: Greenwich
When: Various
Category: Heritage, Museums
Commitment Level: Ongoing Commitment

Develop your skills and contribute to the work of the Royal Museums Greenwich. There are a variety of current volunteering opportunities on offer at the National Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory Greenwich, Cutty Sark and the Queen’s House. For more information, click here.

3.Shuffle Festival

Where: Mile End
When: First 2 weeks of July 
Category: Culture, Festival, Community
Commitment Level: Ad Hoc

Shuffle Festival explores the kind of city we would like to live in. The week-long festivities involve film, science, storytelling, performance art, architectural installations, walks, food, comedy and music. They aim to keep tickets affordable with the revenue providing funds for long-term neighbourhood projects. They’re looking for volunteers to help build and run the festival in the first two weeks of July. Fill out this form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EcNror6ObZI9Zi4Uk0DrrK8bnz6lHCvpW5tmgjfcoPM/viewform ) or email avni@shufflefestival.co.uk for further information.

4.Befriending Team Volunteer

Where: GoodGym, Somerset House
When: Ongoing from June
Category: Admin, Running, Befriending
Commitment Level: Regular Commitment

GoodGym are looking for a volunteer to come and help them coordinate their befriending teams, who combine exercise with befriending of older people. This is a great opportunity to gain some experience with a growing and exciting organisation on a voluntary basis. Apply via Charityjob here.

5.Summer Fair Stewards

Where: Vauxhall Park, SW8 1PU
When: 26th June
Category: Community, Festival, Stewarding
Commitment Level: Ad Hoc

Friends of Vauxhall Park are lokoing for people to help at their Summer Fiar on the 26th June. They need help putting up gazebos, notices etc from 10am on the morning of the fair and then to do general stewarding duties during the fair itself (1.30-5pm). To find out more, click here.

Spotlight on David

David has been living with Dot Dot Dot in one of our North London properties for the past 7 months, and has amassed over 100 hours of volunteering for a wide range of organisations – from gardening projects to helping feed the homeless as well as getting involved in a community choir in the local area.

One of David’s main volunteering projects was working in a Mind Charity Shop. He commented on this experience:

‘I sell every manner of goods at the till. I provide friendly conversation which my manager says the customers like! On a typical Sunday I freshen the book stock, and am trusted to label and price new books. With the manager I discuss politics and life. It’s wonderful to do good and enjoy friendships at the same time.’

However, this is not the only opportunity David has been involved in. He also spent some time volunteering with The Conservation Volunteers, helping to manage the landscape at Alexandra Park.  He described this as:

‘Bramble bashing. We cleared about 20m² of the stuff between the four of us in light rain. So prickly! The toughest part was getting the roots out. Loads of robins started to eye up the disturbed soil, hungry for those worms!’

In other outdoor work, David has also taken part in helping gardening with Dalston Eastern Curve Garden and in packing vegetables for an organic vegetable box scheme, Crop Drop.

He has also taken part in some one-off opportunities such as Crisis at Christmas, where he helped out people who were homeless and spoke to some interesting characters.

We are all really impressed by the amount and variety of volunteering that David has set up – and hope that this continues into the future!

Get involved

• If you’re interested in volunteering and becoming a guardian with dot dot dot, apply here today
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