You’ll be part of a team that support and manages local volunteer Children’s Panel Members. You will also make sure that the views of young people are heard and acted upon within your area.
You’ll be enthusiastic and committed to securing the rights of children and young people; able to lead and be part of teams; a strong communicator. You’ll also be able to demonstrate a strong commitment to and understanding of the ethos, values and principles of the children's hearings system. As an AST member, you will be appointed for an initial three year period with the possibility of extending this.
Panel Practice Advisors are responsible for selecting and recommending Panel Members for appointment. They also regularly observe Panel Members within children's hearings and feedback so improvements can be made. Their goal is to support Panel Members through feedback to ensure the strongest possible decisions are being made for children and young people.
Mentoring Young Talent (MYT) is seeking new volunteer mentors…
MYT works with young people between the age of 12-26yrs, supporting them 1-1 to gain confidence, explore their strengths, help make future plans to either increase their educational attainment or secure a destination like work, training or further education.
Our younger project (12-16yrs) provides mentors to care experienced school attendees while our project for 16-26 year olds aims to support young people locally who may be unemployed, struggling to identify their next steps, need to strengthen their skills and gain from the interaction with a positive role model.
Everyone is welcome to apply to be a mentor, it’s a great way to give back, support local young people and share your knowledge and experience.
We provide training, support and fund some great activities to take part in alongside your matched young person. This volunteer opportunity is also a great career development opportunity, increasing your own employability skills as a result.
During Covid 19 we have seen many young people’s future plans dashed, unemployment rise and increased insecurity for this age group.
Mentoring provides a positive way to help this generation, If you can manage between 1-2 hours a week please get in touch. We are seeking volunteers of all ages and life experience and have young people waiting.
The National Representative Body (NRB) 2023-2025 will comprise of Care Experienced members of Who Cares? Scotland and aims to support the representation of the broader membership for Care Experienced people. The National Representative Body will have been elected by our members to represent the wider Care Experienced community to ensure that the direction of the organisation and our wider work is member led
We are looking for volunteers who can provide a strong foundation to help strengthen the voice of the Care Experienced community, representing the views of Care Experienced people to inform and influence local and national change within care.
The National Representative Body will involve interacting with Care Experienced people, supporting activity to gather their views and working with Who Cares? Scotland staff and their National Representative colleagues to represent these views on a local and national scale.
Who Cares? Scotland is a people organisation. We invest in our people, our relationships and in a positive working culture. It’s important to us that our volunteer team is included, involved and motivated to change society.
What will I be doing?
• Embedding within regional teams, attending and facilitating at local groups and opportunities, gathering the views of members and reviewing what members have told us.
• Local representation of members to help inform and influence national practice.
• Co-designing and directing new projects and initiatives locally and nationally whilst representing the voice of members.
• Directly supporting the organisation’s influencing work through representing members and the organisation, contributing to the production of reports.
• Taking responsibility and ownership for feeding back to members on how they represented their views, the outcomes of this and the actions going forward.
• Shaping organisational priorities through engagement with advocacy and participation outcomes, how we gather the views of and report back to members.
• Developing our evidence-base and shaping our asks of decision makers with the ability to bring about positive change.
• Supporting Care Experienced young people’s sense of belonging and connection.
• Building member’s confidence and self-esteem.
ProjectScotland (part of the Volunteering Matters Family)
Give the gift of your time and become a volunteer mentor for young people. It could be life changing for you both!
Would you like to support a young person on their journey to gaining new skills and experience, becoming more self-confident and achieving their goals? If the answer is yes, we would love to hear from you.
Why mentoring?
Mentoring is at the heart of what we do here at ProjectScotland and we offer every young person we support, the opportunity to be matched with a volunteer mentor. We are searching for people in and around Aberdeen who are able to offer one hour of their time once a week or fortnight for up to 12 months to help transform the life of someone else. The young people we work with all face different challenges in their lives such as; mental ill health, long term unemployment, low confidence and self esteem, care experienced, limited English communication skills due to being new to this country or disabilities.
As a volunteer mentor, you could support your mentee with whatever is important to them. This could be: goal setting; identifying interests and strengths; confidence building; helping to establish a routine; support to explore job, training and further education opportunities; social connections; or just someone consistent to talk to and check in with to see how they are. The support you can offer is invaluable and can be life changing.
How does it work?
• Following recruitment, we provide training, support to join the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme, ongoing support, access to lots of resources and a wonderful community of mentors across the country to connect with, learn from and build friendships with.
• you are matched to one young person and meet with them once a week or fortnight for around one hour
• meetings can be face to face or virtual using email/telephone/video chat/WhatsApp. There is also an opportunity to do a mixture of the two which offers a flexible and accessible approach to this volunteering role in addition to the match itself.
•matches can last from 3-12 months depending upon the relationship and the needs of the mentee
What’s in it for you?
• Help transform your mentee’s life
• Develop communication and interpersonal skills e.g. coaching, motivating others, adaptability
• Gain transferable skills and experience volunteering with disadvantaged people
• Participate in regular support and training
• Meet new people, connect and have fun!
• Learn about yourself and gain a sense of achievement supporting others
• Learn more about your community and the challenges that people can face
If you are interested in this opportunity please email: asia.wieloch@volunteeringmatters.org.uk
We would love to hear from you!
More info about ProjectScotland:
ProjectScotland (part of the Volunteering Matters Family) works with people (predominantly young people) across the country who are struggling to overcome challenges such as social isolation, mental health issues, low confidence and general uncertainty about their futures. By providing wrap around support and the chance to complete a voluntary placement with a local charity; not only can this enhance confidence and self-belief, but it gives that individual the opportunity to build on their skills and experience and potentially move on to a job, further education or training. Everyone we work with is also offered a volunteer mentor.
Purpose and Aims of the role:
We are looking for volunteers who can provide a strong foundation to help strengthen their communities by helping Care Experienced children and young people engage in activities to build their skills and confidence and to be included, understood, respected, and valued in their communities.
The Community Schools volunteer role will work alongside our innovative and energetic Clackmannanshire Who Cares? Scotland project team and will lead and support on educating and raising awareness of Care Experience to Secondary School pupils and all school staff through assemblies, PSE sessions and drop-ins.
Community Schools Volunteers will help to raise awareness of Care Experience, work towards ending stigma and injustice that Care Experience people can face and be part of influencing transformational change. This role will help build community strengths for Care Experienced people and provide social networks to help build resilience and positive outcomes for children and young people.
To build on this school work and embed inclusion and belonging, the team are looking to develop a participation group for Care Experienced young people to attend weekly in the evenings. This role will involve interacting with young people through supporting and leading on a variety of activities e.g. arts/crafts/sports/general youth work at our weekly sessions as well as at our National events that happen throughout the year.
Would you like to share your skills and experience to help ensure young people understand the lives of Care Experienced young people and the challenges they can face?
We invest in our people, our relationships and in a positive working culture. It’s important to us that our volunteer team is included, involved and motivated to change society.
We aim to recruit people with excellent qualities from a wide variety of backgrounds who share in our mission. We particularly welcome applications from individuals with Care Experience.
What will I be doing?
- Learning about rights, legislation and policy which relates to issues faced by Care Experienced people.
- Learning about creative methods of sharing personal experiences.
- Observing others sharing personal experiences.
- Learning and supporting ways to educate Secondary school pupils and school staff on Care Experience to influence change.
- Contributing to, and leading presentations and discussions through assemblies, PSE sessions and drop-ins, with staff support.
- Building relationships with teachers and schools through delivering this work.
- Helping to reduce stigma for Care Experienced young people within schools.
- Being a positive role model.
- Helping young people to have fun
- Supporting staff to undertake activities
-Leading on activities
What qualities do I need?
-To have a non-judgemental approach to people, have empathy.
- Be enthusiastic, flexible and committed.
- Reliable and approachable.
- Friendly, helpful and understanding.
A commitment to treat all information in a confidential manner.
To have a good value base, be open minded and level-headed.
When will I be needed?
- After initial training and information, this project will be starting in August 2023 with hopes of volunteers starting by Autumn.
- The participation group will be looking to start once the project has been established in schools.
- The role may have a blended approach between online and face-to-face in the schools.
- Availability during the day Monday to Friday is essential for the schools work.
- We ask for a minimum of 2 hours per week/fortnightly to include the schools work during the day and the participation group weekly in the evening.
What will I gain from the role?
- A sense of satisfaction in raising awareness and promoting positive change in schools.
- Experience of working alongside an influencing team.
- Knowledge of Government/ Corporate Parenting roles and policies.
- Practical experience of working in a team.
- Experience working with school pupils and staff.
- Have fun!
What support will I be given?
- Induction
- Role specific training and information
- Expenses – all out-of-pocket expenses will be reimbursed
- Supervision and support from your key staff and Volunteer Officer.
- Group supervision/peer support sessions with other volunteers and staff delivering education inputs
Additional Information
For all roles involving regulated work with children and young people, applicants will be required to submit a PVG Scheme Record or a PVG Scheme Record Update application.
An information session regarding this new project and the requirements for the Volunteer role will be held on the 15th of June at 6pm via Zoom. You can register your interest on our website - when you follow the link to Apply Now.
Grandmentors is an award winning inter-generational mentoring programme, matching volunteer mentors who have a range of life skills and experiences with young people aged 16-26 who have had adverse childhood experiences. Grandmentors has now launched in Perth and Kinross.
Our volunteer mentors help young people navigate the transition to independence by guiding them through life skills such as managing finances, accessing employment, education and training, and supporting their health and wellbeing.
This opportunity is for volunteers (normally aged 50+) who have life experience and skills to offer. However, if you are younger than 50 and feel you could offer valuable support, please do apply or contact us to discuss further.
It is important that you have good people skills, communication skills, patience, and can offer a regular commitment of a few hours per week (weekly or fortnightly). This role requires PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups) scheme membership, which will be handled and processed by us.
We provide our volunteers with comprehensive training, on-going support, and volunteer expenses.
As Part Of The Angus Council / Scottish Government Get Into Summer Programme , We Are Looking For Additional Volunteers During The Angus School Holidays (Summer 2023)
Friockheim Park Community Volunteers Are Offering Different Sessions Including:
Woodland Walks
Stay & Play
Litter Picking & Environmental Information Sessions
At All These Sessions We Will Be Providing Hot/Cold Drinks & Basic Refreshments To Both Children & Adults.
You Will Be Part Of A Team Of Volunteers Running Each Session Which Will Be Held On A Variety Of Days Throughout The Holidays,
An Enhanced PVG Will Be Required For This Role.
Please See Below Sections With More Information.
We Look Forward To Hearing From You Soon.
EXCITING NEW OPPORTUNITY IN MIDLOTHIAN
Grandmentors is an award winning inter-generational mentoring programme, matching volunteer mentors who have a range of life skills and experiences with young people aged 16-24 who have had adverse childhood experiences. Grandmentors has now launched in Midlothian.
Our volunteer mentors help young people navigate the transition to independence by guiding them through life skills such as managing finances, accessing employment, education and training, and supporting their health and wellbeing.
This opportunity is for volunteers (normally aged 50+) who have life experience and skills to offer. However, if you are younger than 50 and feel you could offer valuable support, please do apply or contact us to discuss further.
It is important that you have good people skills, communication skills, patience, and can offer a regular commitment of a few hours per week (weekly or fortnightly). This role requires PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups) scheme membership, which will be handled and processed by us.
We provide our volunteers with comprehensive training, on-going support, and volunteer expenses.
Would you like to help children with disabilities by assisting with travel to and from our short break service in Fife?
We are looking for motivated volunteers to help us provide transport to children to and from our respite service in Glenrothes, accompanied by a member of staff. Volunteer Drivers play an important role in helping children visiting our service feel comfortable and secure. If you have a genuine interest in the wellbeing of children with disabilities, we would love to hear from you.
Rainbow Heart Cottage provides children aged 6-18 with a safe, nurturing, homely environment. While staying at Rainbow Heart Cottage, children can enjoy a range of fun activities. This is very much a ‘home away from home’ for the children who stay there and provides their families with a rest from their roles as carers.
What will I be doing?
You can make a difference to the life of a child by:
• Assisting with transport of children by driving the service minibus
• Assisting with travel to and from the service, and during organised activities
• Interacting with children and supporting to participate in new experiences
• Helping children to have fun
• Building a child’s confidence and self esteem
• Being a positive role model
What qualities do I need?
Volunteers would benefit from having:
• Ability to encourage and motivate children
• To have a non-judgmental approach to people
• Be enthusiastic, motivated, flexible and committed
• Friendly and approachable
• Patience and understanding
• To have a good value base, be open minded and level headed
What will I gain from the role?
• A sense of satisfaction in helping young people build their confidence and self- esteem to achieve their full
potential
• Supporting children to flourish
• Practical experience of working with children
• Have fun!
Friends of Hillcrest is a charity group ran by many volunteers to support Hillcrest Care home in Girvan.
We also look for volunteers to support our residents at the care home. Friendly faces visiting our older residents on a regular basis at a time that is convenient to both the resident and yourself. You could sit down with a tea and chat about your lives, or maybe a chat while you play cards.
As a volunteer, you can be the vital link between the resident and the outside world. You can really make a difference, with the residents having something to look forward to.