Volunteer work

[atalanta]

I'm going to have some time to spare, so which good cause should I offer to help?
I don't fancy working in a charity shop, training for the CAB or for the Samaritans. Nor do I want to sit in some back office addressing envelopes. Political stuff is out, too, or becoming a magistrate or a school governor.
Does anyone know about advisory committees for local NHS, maybe ?

[sunny-dave]

Your local GP should (ought) to have a patient panel - mine are always looking for new members - gives you a good insight into how the practice runs & should welcome new ideas.

[owdhamer]

You will find it difficult as a lot of job seekers are now doing voluntary work to help towards full employment

[seadogg]

When we both retired we joined the WRVS, delivering meals on wheels. Some of the old folk never met anyone during the day and it was hard to keep to schedule, but very satisfying work.

[boxtops]

Contact your local Hospice - they have volunteers undertaking dozens of tasks, from driving patients and relatives, to gardening, to working on reception in the hospice. They need all the help they can get.

[pastafreak]

Most urban areas will have soup kitchens manned by volunteers to help feed the needy,or there will be local charities that require help making up food parcels for either here or to be sent over seas.

[wildwood]

If you're not sure what to do, go to any ward at a hospital and ask the (head)nurse if any of the people need a visitor to chat to. You need to have a patient ear as most will want to share their life's story, but it makes them feel good and that's what it is all about.

Elderly folks always have little odd jobs that need doing but are afraid to employ anyone for fear of being ripped off by cowboy 'tradesmen'. It is amazing how long some will put up with a leaky tap or a stuck window that just need two strokes with a plane.

[seadogg]

You are so right Wildwood. When our area switched to digital TV there were so man old folk in panic. Trouble with them is that they want to give you a gift for helping them and they wont take no for an anser.

[ludwig]

// I don't fancy working in a charity shop, training for the CAB or for the Samaritans. Nor do I want to sit in some back office addressing envelopes. Political stuff is out, too, or becoming a magistrate or a school governor. //

You seem a bit fussy about which good cause you'd like to help. Volunteering probably isn't for you.

[bednobs]

i disagree ludwig - just because atlanta doesn't want to do those things, so what? There are LOADS of other stuff to do. Does your town have a volunteer bureau?

[ludwig]

You're right bedknobs. The way it was phrased seemed strange but it's a perfectly reasonable question, so I apologise.

If you just google volunteering and the name of your town, you'll probably find a site that lists all the volunteering opportunities in your area, and you can search it by the type of work you want to do.
That's what I get for my area anyway.

[mike11111]

Don't apologise, Lusdig, they were my sentiments too on reading the OP

[tamborine]

Your local hospital will have a variety of voluntary posts and you will be serving your local community. Ours are run by the WRVS:

http://www.wrvs.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer

[atalanta]

I have tried a search for volunteers wanted in my county. My nearest town has only five jobs on offer, and most of those are for back-office jobs, where I feel I'd probably be putting an employee out of work. That's not on.
Otherwise, jobs where I'd need to undergo training. The alternative is the next-nearest town, over half an hour's drive away, which has nineteen pages of jobs. Problem is, I have spend years training and being trained, and now I want to stop doing that. Also, I have spent far to many years commuting, and I want to stop doing that, too.

[grffindoor2011]

I've done many things in my life. One of them was charity work for 11 years. You are too fussy to be of use long term. I would question would you give it up after the first day because there is some element in the work you do that you don't like.

Even when you have done a search, you add that you don't want to travel into the next town, you don't want to be trained either.

Trust me, volunteering although noble for you to think this way is not for you. You have too many arguments for not doing it.

Maybe you could see if there is a home volunteering job. Do meals on wheels but get the pensioners to come to you as you hand out plates from your armchair.

[atalanta]

Please explain, Grffindoor. Am I to drive to the next town, spending over an hour a day in traffic, spending £30 a day on petrol and parking, in order to do some work for nothing ? If I could afford to do that, I could afford to give some charity that money, stay at home, and save the wear-and-tear on the planet. But I am really trying to do something useful, such as joining a health panel to represent patients. Or something else to use the skills I already have without taking a training opportunity away from a younger person.

[Flyhalf]

You may be able to teach basic numeracy or literacy skills to adults, without extensive training.

[Eve]

Where abouts are you? I have done a lot of different voluntary work from that with the disabled, hospice, Women's Aid, RWVS (Contact Centres) to conservation work with the BTCV and various other bits and pieces but what do you enjoy doing or are good at, might be the best place to start.

Local youth offender panels have volunteers or you could find a local campaign and help with that, things like Operation Christmas Child is not too far away here.

[Essell]

Jenna is right. You should begin by listing your strengths or talents. Then the age of people you are most at home with, or perhaps animals. My DIL is an after dinner speaker, but her charity work was helping in a hospice for terminally sick children, who loved her fascinating repartee and stories. She would never survive working in an office or behind a charity shop counter because she is an extrovert. Friends, now retired, love old people and do meals on wheels which they enjoy. Others have taken on some basic gardening for older people - no organisations involved with that - just noticing a need in their area.

[dance2trance]

Why not try a new approach? That is to say get the local paper to do an article and see if it can find a worthwhile outlet for your skill set? or ask Age UK or YMCA or any of the biggies in the charity field? If you are providing free assistance then the labour market will not be disturbed? You could set up your own web site even soliciting offers.