Volunteering

Do you know your Single Crochet from your Slip Stitch? Your Half Double Crochet from your Chain? Then you're the person for Crochet Club!

Our customers at Tentercroft Court would like to learn how to crochet and are looking for someone to teach them the basics.

You'll be helping them to learn how to crochet and maybe assist them to make a blanket or two! They're complete beginners, so even just learning some terminology and simple stitches would be super.

The residents are really flexible as to when they'd like to run the club, so this could be on a day and at a time to suit you. We see this being up to 2 hours a week maximum.

You must be over the age of 18 if you're doing this role on your own. However, we're happy to consider someone over 14 if they volunteer with a parent or guardian, who's over the age of 18.

Are you local to the Greatwood & Horseclose Community Centre in Skipton? 

Are you someone that can just 'get stuff done' and do you want a chance to help influence and shape what happens in the local community?

The community centre is looking for someone local with passion and enthusiasm, as well as these skills, to join their team of trustees. Your role will be to help support, maintain and protect the centre for its future development. 

You don't need any specialist experience, or have been a trustee before, as all training will be provided. They just need people that care and want to make a difference. You must be over 18. 

Are you local to the Greatwood & Horseclose Community Centre in Skipton? 

Do you like planning, organising and are good with note taking and admin tasks?

The community centre is looking for someone local with passion and enthusiasm, as well as these skills, to join their team of trustees. Your role will be to help support, maintain and protect the centre for its future development. 

You don't need any specialist experience, as all training will be provided, as well as handover from the current secretary. However, experience of administration and organising tasks is helpful, and you must be over 18. 

Our wellbeing café runs once a month and provides a space for people to grab a brew, a snack and take part in some creative tasks, games and activities, as well as connecting with others.

We're currently looking for a volunteer who can help us to make light snacks and refreshments for  the participants of the café. You'll also be tasked at prepping and tidying the kitchen space after use and making sure no one is short of a brew!

Ideally you'll have some experience of serving and preparing food, and have a valid level 2 Food Hygiene Qualification or be willing to redo this, if it's expired. We can cover the cost of this. 

Volunteers would need to be free on the first Wednesday of every month, between 12.30pm - 3.30pm, but you must be over 18 to apply.

Our wellbeing café runs once a month and provides a space for people to grab a brew, a snack and take part in some creative tasks, games and activities, as well as connecting with others.

We're looking for friendly volunteers who can welcome people to the wellbeing café, get them set up and settled in. Volunteers will help people feel comfortable, support them in any activities they would like to do and provide friendly chat.

We'd like someone that's passionate, friendly and willing to get stuck in. You just need to be able to talk to others. listen and be a friendly face for those attending.

Volunteers would need to be free on the first Wednesday of every month, between 12.45pm - 3.15pm, but you must be over 18 to apply.

Coffee mornings give our customers a place to come together over a brew and a chat. There's no structure to a coffee morning other than to keep the hot drinks flowing and the biscuits handy, and be prepared for a natter of course!

We're looking for volunteers who can welcome people, get them settled and help make the all-important brews at one of our coffee mornings at Jubilee Court.

PS. Tea is just as welcome as coffee, Yorkshire Tea of course! 

What's involved?

You'll help our customers feel comfortable, this might mean sitting for a chat or running small activities if there's a need. Quizzes and bingo always go down well!

You'll help set up the session by getting the cups ready and the kettle boiled. Then at the end you'll make sure everything's washed up and it's all clean and tidy. 

The residents already love a Coffee Morning at Asquith Court, but the day and time can be flexible to you. (Apart from a Wednesday, as the residents are already busy!) Ideally this would run once a week, but we can consider fortnightly or once a month. Coffee Mornings normally last about an hour and in other schemes run around 10am/11am. So, we expect a volunteer to be needed for about 2 hours a week.

You must be over 18.

Who doesn’t love playing games?  Our customers certainly do at Asquith Court, they love to play a variety of board games, puzzles and quizzes over warm drinks and chocolate biscuits! As a games session volunteer you'll be helping their game session to run and bring new games and ideas for our customers to try.

You'll help set up the games or activities and play along with our customers. You can use the selection already at Asquith Court or bring some of your own to use. As well as providing the all-important games, you'll be tasked at making the brews and choosing the biscuits!

Games sessions already happen at Asquith Court, but the days and times can be flexible. (Apart from a Wednesday, as the residents are already busy!) Ideally this would run once a week, but we can consider fortnightly or once a month. Games sessions can last from an hour to two hours and can happen in the morning, afternoon or early evening. So we expect a volunteer to be needed for a maximum of 3 hours a week.

You must be over the age of 18 if you're doing this role on your own. However, we're happy to consider someone over 14 if they volunteer with a parent or guardian, who's over the age of 18.

Every fortnight at Ingsgarth community centre in Pickering, the Thursday lunch club provides a two course meal to 24 of our older customers and community members.

It's fully volunteer led and run and they're looking for a new volunteer cook to help plan, prepare and cook on a six week rota basis. You'll be volunteering alongside another volunteer and be responsible for the main and dessert for the session.

Lunch is typically served at 12.30pm, so volunteers will be needed to be available for the prep beforehand, and to serve the meals.  This will roughly be 4-5 hours depending on the meal being served.

This opportunity is open to anyone over the age of 18, and we can make sure your food hygiene certificates are up to date.

Every fortnight at Ingsgarth community centre in Pickering, the Thursday lunch club provides a two course meal to 24 of our older customers and community members.

It's fully volunteer led and run and they're looking for new front of house helpers to assist with setting tables, greeting attendees,  serving meals and clearing away.

They're looking for volunteers to help between 10.30am and 3pm, every fortnight. 

Are you super friendly and love a good chat? You're just who they're looking for!

You'll also get your lunch provided and is open to anyone over the age of 18.

We offer grants to support local projects like improving green spaces, setting up new groups, putting on activities or lunch clubs. The list goes on!

To make sure fair's fair, customers on our grants panel take a look at applications and help decide which ones will make the most impact.

As a panel volunteer you'll be tasked at reading the grant applications and marking it against ten specific criteria to make sure the money is spent fairly. We'll then have an online chat to talk through the scoring and make a final funding decision together.

Each grant application roughly takes a maximum of 30 minutes to evaluate and score, and 20 minutes to then discuss.

This is a super flexible role you can do from home and in your own time, as long as you have a computer and an email address you're good to go! You choose when you can take part and how many you'd like to score, so it can fit around your other commitments too!

What we're looking for:

• A natural decision maker, a pro at deciding if something's a good idea or not.
• A critical and inquisitive thinker who loves to ask questions.
• A passion for developing local areas.
• No need to have experience of grants or finance, we actually think it's better if you haven't!

This role is only open to current Yorkshire Housing customers.

It’s really easy to do – just fill out this online application form! Depending on the role you’re looking at, we might need to do a DBS check too.

A DBS check is a way for organisations to see if you’ve got a criminal record, to help decide whether you’re a suitable person to work or volunteer for them. 

Whether or not you need one depends on the role. If you’re working with vulnerable people then yes, we’ll need to do a DBS check but don’t worry, we’ll cover the costs.

Each role is different and the time commitment varies. Some roles need someone there at the same time each week, but others are more flexible. When you get in touch about a particular role we'll send you the full description so you can see the exact time commitments and decide if that works for you. 

Everyone!

We’ve got a lot of different volunteers at Yorkshire Housing. Some of them are students, some are retired and we’ve got everyone in between. Our opportunities are really flexible so most people find something that suits them. We can even host students who're completing their Duke of Edinburgh awards! 

No – most of the places where we need volunteers are easy to get to on public transport. We cover the cost of your travel and, if you do volunteer somewhere where you need to drive to then we cover the cost of that too.

It depends on the role but we give you some basic training if it’s needed and we often share training courses related to your role that you might find useful or interesting. For most roles you just need oodles of enthusiasm!

Nope! Everyone is welcome to volunteer with us.

Another one that depends on the role. We’ve usually got quite a few different roles available.

Maybe you fancy doing some admin, helping at one of our coffee mornings or maybe gardening’s more your thing.

Check out our current opportunities. And, if you’re looking for a career at Yorkshire Housing, you can find out more about our current vacancies on our careers page.

Yes! We don’t want you to be out of pocket to volunteer with us so we'll cover your transport costs. 

We don’t have enough space to answer this! You'll learn loads of new skills like thinking on your feet, interpersonal skills, problem solving and leadership to name a few. Each role comes with specific skills that you'll learn too! 

Yes! We might not have any volunteering roles for home-based volunteering just now, but if you've got some skills to share please get in touch and we'll look to create a role to fit your needs. 

We’ve got sites all over Yorkshire. You can see where our current roles are here. If there isn't anything in your area or no roles that take your fancy, get in touch anyway and we can look to create a bespoke role. 

We like this question! It’s been found to improve mental health, employability skills and your sense of self-worth but it also helps people in your community.

Giving a bit of time can have such a huge impact on our customers, so thank you if you’re thinking about volunteering with us!