Volunteer Community Mentor (Children and Young People Services, London)

Location/region: Various locations in the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Bexleyheath, Bromley, Enfield, Greenwich, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Waltham Forest

As a charity, our Garden Centres provide supported employment placements for people in our community.

Our Garden Centre Shops can get quite busy so we have a mixture of volunteers, colleagues, and service users on site to give great service to our customers.

By supporting service users or carrying out tasks independently, you will help keep our customers happy and raise vital funds for the charity.

Key Tasks

This role could include:

Being a positive role model for young people.
Taking part in events to help raise the profile of the programme and reach out to young people.
Providing advice and support to young people based on your lived experiences and local knowledge.
Signposting young people to other support available to make sure they get what they need.
Support the wider Shaw Trust marketing team provide good news stories.
Supporting colleagues to encourage young people to engage with activities and projects that will help them achieve their goals.

What’s in it for you?

Improve skills and boost your CV
Grow your confidence and meet new people
Some lunch and travel expenses
We can be flexible around education, family, work, or health etc.
Volunteering is great for staying active

What are we asking for?

Normally we ask for around 4 hours a month, but we can be flexible.
Volunteers in this role must be aged 16+
Lived experience of the challenges facing young people in the community.
Understanding of the barriers facing people from vulnerable groups and a commitment to actively helping young people.
A willingness to learn new skills and engage with the public.
Adaptable to support a range of people & their needs, which may include people who have experienced challenging life events and circumstances.
Good communication and interpersonal skills, with a friendly and helpful manner.
Have skills working with or supporting people who face disadvantages such as health issues, disability and a lack of employability skills.
Patience and excellent listening skills.

Volunteer hours

Four hours between 09:00 an 17:00 between Monday and Friday.