Have you ever wanted to volunteer all to do within the concept of Football?
Well look no further! Street Soccer Scotland is currently looking for volunteers to join their team. No two days the same, working alongside our players developing them personally and mentally.
The role includes working with coaches and players pitch side, monitoring games, inputting data, building relationships with partner organisations. We work with all ages from 10 years old all the way to past retirement .
We currently run in Aberdeen: Walking Football, Kids 10-13 Year olds, Street 45 (Women's Programme) and Adult Sessions. Opportunities are available Monday to Friday - Please get in touch with Peter Wood, Programme Co-ordinator at email: peter@streetsoccerscotland.org or telephone: 07487603708, if you would like to know more.
Supporting a local charity aimed at inclusiveness and working to promote, sustain and increase individual education and access to local, fresh grown produce. To help alleviate food poverty, to promote healthy living and access to outdoor spaces and to enhance community cohesiveness. To support and empower those who are impacted by health.
Various roles are available depending on preference. We have a wide list of opportunities from helping in the gardens, becoming a lead volunteer, mentoring other volunteers, helping out at activities and open days in the community gardens, being involved in the online presence of the charity eg taking pictures and possibly helping with IT. We are also involved with several other initiatives and we are happy to discuss volunteer involvement in these areas too, where appropriate.
COG: Community Outreach Group provides support to homeless and vulnerable people in the City of Aberdeen.
We provide meals and essentials for the homeless and vulnerable people of Aberdeen on a Wednesday and Sunday evening. We are looking for drivers to pick up and drop off various food donations.
This is a vital role in what we do as an organisation, collecting all the donations and dropping them off so we have the food ready to serve. All help makes a real difference and is greatly appreciated.
For more details please contact Rebecca Fyfe at email: beccafyfe@hotmail.com or telephone: 07415723938.
Police Scotland Special Constables (Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray)
Putting yourself forward to assist any organisation / group or association is to the benefit and promotion of their objectives and what they stand for within the communities they operate.
Police Scotland Special Constables contribute a competent and professional support backup to the organisation as a whole.
As a Special Constable you will have received training, be assessed and achieved a competent level of Police Legislation knowledge to work alongside your fellow Regular colleagues.
A small range and example of the duties you could be involved in are from Missing person enquiries, Working on wildlife crime investigations, Anti-disorder patrols to deal with hotspots, Driving Police vehicles / Crewing patrol vehicles to Major incident door to door enquiries.
Each Police Scotland Division have a Special Constable Coordinator to look after the deployment and development of their Special Constables. After initial training a Special Constable will deploy within their chosen area and develop their skill base with the assistance of their Coordinator and their respective Local Policing team.
Example of comments from current Special Constables:
-“I felt I could contribute to the community I live in and would have opportunities to meet and work with other people while doing a job I had always considered.”
-“Serving the community is an integral part of a Special Constables duties, working as part of the local team and often with other agencies to provide essential services to those who require assistance in their time of need”
-“Volunteering my time to my community has become something that I find extremely rewarding.”
-“I have received a tremendous amount of encouragement, nurturing and support from all my colleagues, from the front office staff to my fellow Special Constables, Constables, Sergeants, Inspector and Chief Inspector. This makes volunteering for duties an easy decision, who would not want to be part of such an amazing team! “
*Interested in Police Scotland Special Constables please contact your Local Special Constable Coordinator or Police Scotland Recruitment at email Policerecruitmentaberdeen@scotland.pnn.police.uk (for Aberdeen) or email: aberdeenshiremorayspecialconstablescoordinator@scotland.pnn.police.uk (for Aberdeenshire and Moray).
*Further information is also available at https://www.scotland.police.uk/recruitment/special-constables/
Somebody Cares is a local charity who furnish homes, provide clothing, baby equipment, toys and food parcels to those in need within our city and shire. Through referral from many local support services, charities, social workers and the local councils, clients are able to access our services completely free of charge.
By demonstrating empathy and support, our aim is to provide a helping hand to those who are facing challenging times, by offering hope and providing then with essential and practicable items which they otherwise couldn’t afford to purchase. Our greatest wish is that after receiving our support our clients can gain confidence, flourish and begin to escape the poverty trap.
We work with men, woman and children from many different backgrounds, and our services are accessed by many support services including Aberdeen City Council, Cornhill Hospital, Grampians Women’s Aid, Barnardo’s, Children’s 1st, Turning Point Scotland, Langstane Housing, Shmu, Children and Family Services, Social Bite, Drugs and Alcohol Awareness and many medical professionals.
We fund our charitable work by selling some of our donated items at our very busy retail megastore at Hazeldene Road, Aberdeen. (Old Dobbie’s building). The Megastore has many gems and bargains and has a strong local clientele who visit the store on a regular basis. We are looking for volunteers to help us sort through many of the donated items ready for sale. We are flexible with hours and days and are looking for enthusiastic people with a heart for making a difference to join our friendly team.
A fantastic opportunity to help. All volunteers make a real difference and are greatly appreciated. For further details please contact Alison Topley, Chief Operating Officer at email: volunteer@somebodycaresscotland.org or telephone: 01224 460700.
The 70/30 Campaign is aiming to reduce child abuse and neglect by 70% by 2030. As a 70/30 Ambassador you will be empowering your local community to protect our children by spreading awareness and gaining support to prevent child abuse and neglect from happening in the first place. You will gain new skills, and be part of a large network of volunteers and professionals, while making a real difference in your local community and across the UK.
The role is very flexible and depends on your skills and on the needs in your local area, but you can take part in a range of activities, such as: spreading awareness with people you know and on social media; fundraising; organising events; engaging with MPs, MSPs, AMs and councillors; engaging with local press; expanding your local 70/30 group.
Ambassadors will take part in a training session with a member of the team and are invited to join the bi-monthly national conference call with other ambassadors across the country. Ambassadors usually give 2 or more hours of their time a week, but get in touch if you are interested and don't have much time available as there is always some way you can help!
Please visit our website and complete the form to become an ambassador today at www.wavetrust.org/7030 or contact Alex Williamson at email: awilliamson@wavetrust.org.
Aberdeen in Recovery (AiR) was granted Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) charitable status in March this year. We are now looking to find talented, passionate and skilled people to fill some vacant seats on our Board of Trustees to help us grow and develop our innovative and solution focused new charity. This is a unique opportunity to help lay the foundations to ensure AiR has a long-term future as a charity with solid processes in place to ensure it meets its mission of:
“To be a bridge from ‘dependence’ to ‘independence’ for the individual seeking to recover from problematic substance use and addictive behaviours”.
This is such an exciting and invigorating prospect for individuals to get involved and be participant in the tsunami of change which is now gaining momentum and being driven by “Experts by Experience” and the vibrant Lived Experienced Communities which are blossoming, not only locally but are now established as a national phenomena.
Since its conception, AiR and its members have worked tirelessly to establish and build collaborative relationships with professional services and third sector support agencies. We have consistently driven the message that individuals who have personal lived/living experience of active substance use, including Family members who have been affected by the addictive behaviours of a loved one, and the Recovery Communities they represent have something valid, essential and extremely beneficial to bring to described Recovery Orientated Systems of Care (ROSC). We can provide existing services and clinical structural systems with resources, skills and capabilities that they, no matter how much effort, time and money they invest, will never be able to offer or provide.
So, it gives the greatest of pleasure to see this is now recognised on the highest levels that “Recoverists” can productively contribute to the design, development and delivery of truly person-centred ROSC. This being evidenced by the vision, philosophy and content of the Scottish Governments “Rights, Respect and Recovery” Drug and Alcohol Strategy.
We also believe it is reaffirmed by the recent success in being granted funding from the Government’s National Development Fund, with our principle partner Alcohol and Drugs Action (ADA), for our ‘Recovery Peer Pathway’ joint two-year project. This collaborative venture will build on three years of pilot work to further establish and build proactive and productive Developmental Pathways within ADA and their Volunteer network while in synergy with AiR membership for individuals who desire to initiate change in their behaviours and outlook as they progress on their recovery journeys within, and imperatively out-with, statutory and formal support services.
We believe that the blue sky thinking behind this project categorically and emphatically fits with the expectations, outcomes and concepts of the above Government policy.
So, if you have lived experience, or a stakeholder interest, and a passion for recovery and are willing to give of yourself that another may learn, you will not find a better opportunity to indulge your appetite than from within Aberdeen in Recovery.
For more information please contact Dermot Craig, Recovery Community Development Manager at E Mail: dermot@aberdeeninrecovery.org or tel.: 01224 638342 / Mobile: 07751 213108.
Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE)
Join the Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm to shape action to reduce gambling harms in Scotland. The ALLIANCE Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm programme are recruiting people with lived experience to help shape action to reduce gambling harms in Scotland by sharing their expertise and priorities.
Gambling-related harms are the adverse impacts from gambling on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, communities, and society. This includes financial, employment, and relationship issues, physical and mental health problems, criminal activity, and in the most severe cases suicide as a direct result of gambling harm.
People can experience gambling harms to different degrees, and the Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm programme are interested in speaking to anyone who feels they have experienced harm as result of their own, or a loved one’s gambling.
Working with people with lived experience, the programme helps to identify key areas of importance in reducing gambling harms in Scotland. These key areas help shape the focus for the Scottish Implementation Group of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms and put the voice of people affected by gambling harms at the heart of action to reduce those harms.
The programme also provides people with lived experience with new perspectives, advice and information on other matters related to gambling harm. For example, shaping awareness raising campaigns and helping inform the focus of future research on gambling harm.
How can you get involved?
You can:
• Become a Forum Member
We support a forum of people with lived experience of gambling harms to come together on a regular basis with policy and decisions makers in Scotland. Forum Members commit to attending regular, evening meetings roughly every six weeks for one and a half hours.
• Contribute on an individual basis
For people who are unable to commit to the regularity of the Forum, we are able to speak to people on a more ad hoc basis as topics or opportunities they are passionate about arise.
We are keen to hear from people with experience of gambling harms or people who have a loved one(s) with experience of gambling harms. Sometimes, we call these people “affected others” and they might be a partner, parent or guardian, child, or sibling of a person with lived experience of gambling harms.
Having views from a diverse range of people is important to us. We particularly welcome speaking to:
• Older People
• Younger People
• Women
• People from a range of cultural backgrounds
• People from a range of religious backgrounds
• People from a range of ethnic and racial communities
• Anyone who views themselves as a member of a minoritised community
What are the benefits of being involved?
• Networking opportunities and building relationships with others affected by gambling harm as well as people who work within health and social care.
• Developing new skills via training or attending events and conferences.
• Contribute positively to society.
• Contribute to influencing gambling policy.
• Positive mental health benefits from volunteering, including increased confidence and feelings of self-worth.
• For many of those with lived experience, contributing to systems change is an important part of their life and contributes to their recovery.
• Work experience which can be included in CVs.
If you are interested in getting involved, or would like to hear more about our work please get in touch via email at: gamblingharm@alliance-scotland.org.uk or on Twitter: @ScotRGH.
To support the provision of sports & fitness activities. The Skye Centre Sports & Fitness Department provides a wide range of activities for patients including football, volleyball, general fitness sessions, inter-team competitions, fitness assessments & fitness advice. Patients participate in team or individual activities and are encouraged and supported to try new activities, work as a team and build confidence in their own abilities. The volunteer will provide input with the team of staff facilitating these activities.