This section lists organisations that offer information on current volunteering opportunities, help match you up to the opportunity that suits your interests and availability, and offer ongoing support.
See also: http://www.do-it.org.uk/ for more local volunteering opportunities.
Lancashire
County Council Volunteer Hub Volunteering can be a rewarding experience and provides an opportunity to gain new skills and new friends. It could be beneficial for your CV and may even help you to find employment.
Lancashire County Council has a diverse range of volunteer opportunities to offer. These include Activity / Gardening / Shopping Assistants (Homes for Older People), Mentoring and Befrienders (Adult Social Care), Supporting Unpaid Carers, Young People's Service volunteers, Countryside Rangers, Test Purchasers (Trading Standards), and many more.
LUSU involve
LUSU involve offers Lancaster University students worthwhile and interesting volunteering and enterprise opportunities. Volunteering has a positive impact on the local and regional community whilst also enhancing the student experience and employability. LUSU involve is one of the leading volunteering units in Higher Education institutions in the UK.
Slaidburn House, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4YA
Main Office Contract:
Tel: 01525 592828 Fax: 01524 846732 Internal Phone: 92828
E-mail: involve[at]lancaster.ac.uk
Lancaster District CVS
Lancaster District CVS supports volunteering in the district in the following ways:
• Hosting an annual Volunteer Achievement Award
• Advice and information with policies around volunteering
• Training for volunteers
If you need advice in any of these areas, please contact the Voluntary Sector Development Team on 01524 555900. For specific volunteering opportunities, please contact the organisations listed on this page.
See also their directory of local voluntary organisations.
LOCAL VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES
Animal
Care
Blea Tarn Kennels, Blea Tarn Road, Scotforth, Lancaster,
LA2 0RD
Animal Care Charity Shop. 40 Claremont Road, Morecambe,
LA4 4HL.
Tel:01524 65495. Open Tue - Sat 9am - 3.30pm.
If you'd like to volunteer to help in the sanctuary or the Morecambe
charity shop, tel: 01524 65495 (11am-3pm) or email: vanessa@animalcare-lancaster.co.uk.
Citizens' Advice Bureau Your Opportunity to make a real difference..
..and provide a service informing people of their legal rights and responsibilities and to influence the development of social policies and services both locally and nationally.
Volunteers at Lancaster Citizens' Advice Bureau receive excellent training to help achieve these aims. We wish to increase the number of advisers at the Bureau. In return for your time we offer nationally recognised training, the opportunity for personal development and invaluable experience.
We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are keen to diversify our volunteer staff.
87 King Street, Lancaster, LA1 1RH
Oban House, 87-89 Queen Street, Morecambe, LA4 5EN
See website for drop-in hours.
Contact us today.
Email: enquiries@lancastercab.org
First responders First responders are people who live in rural areas trained
to give provide immediate and possibly life saving help in a medical
emergency until paramedics can get there and take over. Their work is
known to reduce the deaths and damage caused by heart attacks. However
more are always needed. If are interested
in finding out more about their work and if it might be the thing for
you, call 07843585102
Furniture Matters Thornton Rd, Morecambe. Tel; 01524 427300
Recycles furniture, electrical appliances + bicycles for people on a
low income.
Need volunteers for driving, deliveries, admin + cleaning.
Lancaster & District Conservation Volunteers
Set up in 1984 as an autonomous local group within the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (recently changed to The Conservation Volunteers (TCV)), we are now members of TCV's Community Network. We work to improve the quality of the local environment for community benefit. Some of our projects include tree planting and maintenance, fencing, drystone walling, hedge laying and footpath management.
Benefits of becoming a member include skills training, minibus pick-ups to and from work sites and working with a friendly group of volunteers of all ages.
Workdays are Sundays (usually fortnightly).
For further information telephone David & Liz Alexander (Project Organisers) 01524 412938 (evenings 7-9 pm).
See Virtual Lancaster's Events Calendar to keep up to date with our next work days' activities, or search our website www.ldcv.org.uk for our current programme
Leonard Cheshire is looking for volunteers to link up with individuals with disabilities and to spend time with them on a regular basis either in their own home or out in the community.
Natalie Searle, Volunteer Co-ordinator,
(natalie.searle@lc-uk.org) or
Joe Cobb, Sociability Co-ordinator
(joe.cobb@lc-uk.org),
Leonard Cheshire,
North West Community Services (North),
Derby House,
Lytham Road,
Fulwood,
Preston PR2 8JE.
Tel: 01772 772 207
LESS: Promoting sustainable living
LESS is a Community Interest Company, set up in March 2007 to deliver practical projects supporting local people to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. We have lots of volunteering opportunities within the organisation, and work mainly in the areas of food growing and energy.
Current projects include:
Off the Ground: promoting local food growing including establishing community allotment site, and working with local schools, community groups and households to support people to grow their own food. This includes practical support as well as training.
Local food: producing a directory of local food and drink suppliers to support people to source local produce.
Home Energy Service: tackling affordable warmth and reducing carbon emissions across the district through energy efficiency measures. Through a team of specially trained volunteers, we offer:
* Free independent advice on all aspects of home energy use including insulation, lighting, grants available and renewable options from our Energy Officer
* Information on local suppliers and their ranges of products
* Thermal imaging to help you spot where the heat is leaking out
* Training in energy efficiency
* Utility Bills Clinics—can help you save money through switching tariffs
For more information on any projects, volunteering opportunities or general matters of sustainability please contact admin@lessuk.org or visit www.lessuk.org or tel: 01524 66100
Sport: Your Sport, Your Community Volunteer Scheme
This Lancaster City Council scheme supports and rewards volunteers who give their time, enthusiasm and skills to supporting community sport around the Lancaster district.
Your Sport, Your Community supports volunteers with their personal and professional development and puts them in touch with the people who need them most. See website for more info.
Victim Support Community Volunteers
We are looking for volunteers to provide confidential emotional support and practical help to victims of crime and other people affected. You will receive excellent training and have the opportunity to progress if you wish by specialising in supporting victims of specific crimes. If you are a good listener and a caring person who can support victims in a non-judgmental, impartial and respectful way, then contact us about our volunteering opportunities.
Details about our opportunity along with application forms can be found here: http://www.victimsupport.org.uk/Home/Get-involved/Volunteering
Alternatively, contact us on lancashirevolunteering@victimsupport.org.uk or 01772 201142 to request further information or discuss our opportunities.
We look forward to hearing from you!
virtual-Lancaster (this website) Email
We have jobs for the sociable - and for the more reclusive too, for people with initiative, humour, patience and a helpful disposition.
We need
people who can work independently from home with technical skills to improve or repair the site facilities and people who will send in updates and corrections to page content and links, or help to moderate the events calendar, who just need basic computer literacy.
No job is too small. If you see outdated or inaccurate content on this site, please tell us, or send us the correction, with the URL of the relevant page.
We also need
people who like going out to review entertainments for us. We need news
stories, and writers / editors to tidy them up, researchers (this can be fun) and written reports and opinions on local issues (everyone) and we need pictures too.
Just send it in. You can contribute on a single issue, or a single page, or more generally, once or more, as your interests take you. If you aren't sure, drop us a line anyway, it can't hurt. And if you can't think what you'd like to do, email
us and we'll have a chat anyway.
Our operation is mainly online, working from home. We have no office (no budget!) and don't get together in person all that often.
If you are tied to the house, working online for Virtual Lancaster will help to keep you well in the loop. Satori says: The best thing for me about working for VL is getting to hear about so many positive things people are doing for each other locally. The energy and initiative I get to witness is phenomenal. You get a very special insight into just how decent and sincere so many of the people living around us are. It's inspiring on a daily basis and it's what's kept me going these 13 years.
WRVS The WRVS Hospital Library Service needs volunteers (men
& women) to help out with the cafe and shop at the Royal Lancaster
Infirmary. This is a service that makes a huge difference to thousands
of people - if you've ever spent hours hanging around the Intensive
Care Unit waiting to find out if a loved one is going to come out in
one piece, then you'll know those WRVS cafes are a lifeline of sanity and sustainance.
And if you've ever drunk hospital machine tea, you'll know just how
grim life can be when the cafe is closed. So if you've a morning or
afternoon to spare, please help keep it open. The WRVS have a number of other local projects too. Like the army, the WRVS are a service that can be called on to step up in a civil emergency too, such as flood or fire, mobilising basic essential humanitarian services.
SUPPORT THIS WEB SITE This site is run entirely by volunteers. Please help with our running costs by making a donation. Thank you.
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