Volunteer at the JHF
As a small charitable organization, we are incredibly grateful to our community volunteers. Whether you have a lot of time to spare or even just the occasional few hours, we would love to hear from you. JHF volunteers can expect to meet great people, feel warmly welcomed, and truly enjoy their time supporting a good cause.
Ad Hoc Volunteering
Here at the JHF, we absolutely love to pull the community together with fundraising events. We run eclectic events which have ranged from barn dances to black tie evenings, sports days to carolling. These events directly improve local young lives, but rely on extra hands from community volunteers.
If you would like to join our network of ad-hoc community volunteers, please contact us.
Some activities our volunteers help us with:
- Running coffee & cake stands, marshalling, or taking tickets at JHF events
- Gardening or upkeep at our outdoor classroom
- Joining us to sing carols and play festive games in Tescos
- Counting pennies from a penny drive
- Putting event posters up in local shop storefronts
- Supporting or leading learning workshops for Project Growth
Volunteer Mentoring
If you’ve ever thought about helping others and wondered “what can one person do?”- here’s an answer. Just by giving time and space to talk to a young person, you can make an enormous impact on them, their family, school and community.
JHF Volunteer Mentors receive full training before they begin, and continued supervision and support throughout their placement. Once you have passed the selection process and completed training, you may also shadow a JHF mentor and mentee prior to beginning your placement. When ready, you will be matched with a young person and begin your mentoring journey.
Volunteer mentoring is available from four hours per week, term time only. You will meet at the same time each week and will be a trustworthy, positive role model to help build resilience and steer positive change. Volunteer Mentors should ideally be willing to commit to roughly 10-12 months of support to ensure consistency for their mentee.
Each young person has a personal plan, covering what they’d like to learn, achieve or feel better about. As their mentor, you’ll help them think about these things, and give them time to talk about what’s happening at home, in school or with friends.
Mentors may join their mentees within their school setting, or do their own thing, with full access to the JHF Kitchen, Orchard, or team memberships to Puxton Park, Noahs Ark, and Tyntesfield. Your Programme Manager will keep you in touch with upcoming events and suggest lots of other ideas.
What checks do you carry out on volunteer mentors?
As you’d expect, the safety of our young people is paramount. All volunteers are subject to standard Safer Recruitment procedures. We ensure that enhanced DBS checks are in place for all candidates, and provide training in Safeguarding, Prevent, and GDPR. We ask for and follow up all references with care.
How do I know if I'm a good fit?
When you volunteer, we’ll have a conversation about your availability, your ability to commit to meeting regularly, and your reasons for volunteering. We need to know whether you’re able to mentor right now and if mentoring is right for you.
Mentors complete an interview and a 3-month probationary period to ensure any issues do not affect the safety and wellbeing of mentees. We also ask you to sign a volunteer’s agreement, so you’re clear on what you can expect from us, and vice-versa.