Volunteering

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 coffee mornings happen once a month, on a Thursday (normally the second Thursday of the month). They start at 10am and roughly last about an hour, depending on any extra activity happening. So volunteers are needed between 9.30am – 11.30am to set up and clear away at the end.

You must be over 18.

Every Monday a group of our customers get together for an hour before their tea to play a variety of board games, puzzles and quizzes over a warm drink and some chocolate biscuits. As a games night support volunteer you'll be helping the session to run and bring new games and ideas for the group to try.

You'll help set up the games or activities and play along with our customers. You can use the selection already at Laurel Croft 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 night sessions currently happen every Monday between 4.30pm - 5.30pm. There'll be some setting up and clearing up of the session needed, so volunteers will be needed between 4pm - 6pm, with the maximum time volunteering being 2 hours, however there is some flexibility in this.

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.

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!