10 April 2015 | News and features | Back to Blog

This week’s top five volunteering opportunities

Top 5 London (2)

 

1. Chrisp Street Spring Festival
When: Saturday 18th April    Poplar harca
Where: Chrisp Street
Commitment level: Low
Any Dot Dot Dot guardians involved: No
Chrisp Street is hosting a Spring Festival to celebrate all things green and local on Saturday 18th April.  It’s free to attend and will play host to a variety of family activities including music, street food, creative workshops and eye-catching stalls, focused on sustainability.  The area will be transformed into a lively hub of activity and colour, creating a vibrant atmosphere and bringing the local community together. Volunteers are needed to help with the event. Volunteers will be looking after key event zones – Bite street food; Information tent; Workshops; Good food; Green energy and recycling; Farm; and Growing zone. All volunteers will receive an event T-shirt, lunch and reimbursement of travel expenses (receipts and tickets must be provided). The event is outdoors so please bring a waterproof jacket just in case! Volunteers are needed between 9.30am and 1.30pm or 1pm- 5pm. If you can volunteer some time on the day, please contact Blossom at blossom.young@poplarharca.co.uk or 07984723479.

2. RNLI Fundraiser 
When: Tuesday April 28th    Lifeboats
Where: Various Stations around London
Commitment Level: Moderate
Any Dot Dot Dot guardians involved: Yes
The RNLI needs volunteers to help raise money and awareness of their London Lifeboats on Tuesday 28th April 2015. The RNLI have four lifeboat stations on the Thames with the RNLI’s busiest lifeboat station in the whole of the UK being the Tower station based near Waterloo Bridge. 2014 was Tower station’s busiest year yet with the volunteer crew launching 543 times, rescuing 104 people. Altogether in 2014 the London Lifeboats rescued 231 people, enough to fill two and a half double decker buses! To help continue their great work the RNLI are looking for volunteers to help collect donations at London Stations. If you can spare some time on the 28th please get in touch with Jasmine at Jasmine_Morris@rnli.org.uk

3. London Fairness Commission Volunteer
When: Flexible (project staff in the office Mon, Tues and Wed each week)
Where: Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LS    Fairness
Commitment level: Moderate
Any other Dot Dot Dot guardians involved: Yes
The London Fairness Commission aims to bring inequality and unfairness into the centre of the London Mayoral Campaign 2016. The commission has three work strands – researching current levels of economic inequality in London, organising a series of public events throughout the summer and autumn, and campaigning to get recommendations adopted by the London mayoral candidates. The Commission’s secretariat, James Scott, is looking for volunteers throughout the project. In the immediate, this will help with drafting minutes, conducting research to inform the stakeholder analysis or monitoring and drafting media reports. In the longer run volunteers will can be trained to organise large public events, deal with media enquiries, draft press releases, write blogs or plan research projects. The London Fairness Commission, set for public launch in June, will be a high-profile political campaign throughout 2015 and 2016.  As such it would be ideal for any volunteers who are interested in receiving training in campaign skills, such as communications, managing media relations, devising strategy and tactics, power-analysis or activist recruitment. If you are interested please contact James at londonfairnesscommission@toynbeehall.or.uk or 07908784698.

4. Volunteer Gardening Be-friender
When: Ongoing    Choice in Hackney
Where: Throughout Hackney, office address is 50 Hoxton Street, London N1 6LP
Commitment level: Moderate
Any other Dot Dot Dot guardians involved: No
Choice In Hackney is a small user-led disability organisation based in Hackney. At this time of year, many disabled people in Hackney struggle with maintaining their gardens and they become inaccessible to them. They are in need of volunteers who can make a real difference to someone’s quality of life over just a few hours every now and again by tidying up their garden to make it a usable one. If you have basic gardening experience, please get in touch! Volunteers aim to do one gardening session a week over a few months but Choice In Hackney can be flexible and fit in with volunteers availability. Have a look at their website to apply.

5. Helpline Volunteer – ‘Join Dementia Research’ Service
When: Ongoing    Dementia
Where: Devon House, 58 St Katharine’s Way, London E1W 1LB 
Commitment level: High
Any Dot Dot Dot guardians involved: No
The National Institute for Health Research in collaboration with leading dementia charities, has developed a new database called ‘Join dementia research’ (JDR) – which is aimed at boosting participation in research studies. Alzheimer’s Society is supporting the delivery of this new initiative and they are currently recruiting volunteers to provide a telephone helpdesk service that will register members of the public on the database, as well as respond to more general enquiries about JDR and dementia research. This is an opportunity to be part of a ground breaking new service that will accelerate the pace of dementia research, whilst enabling volunteers to develop their skills and gain valuable experience within a national charity. Volunteers can work from the London office and from home. Ideally a volunteer would be able to commit one day per week for at least a year. If you have an interest in dementia and/or research and have experience of dealing with people over the phone and can demonstrate excellent listening skills and the ability to communicate clearly then please apply here.