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Volunteers at Parents for Children

Volunteers can help Parents for Children in a variety of ways. We are a small charity and we depend on the donation of time and money to be able to offer our unique family-finding service for some of society's most vulnerable children.

Why do people volunteer?

There are many reasons why people decide to give some of their time to help a charity. Here are just a few reasons to be a Parents for Children volunteer:

To support the work that Parents for Children does
To do something really useful with your spare time
Volunteering will give you the opportunity to meet new people
Working as a volunteer can help you to learn new skills
Helping Parents for Children inspires our volunteers – it's so much more rewarding than sitting on the sofa!

Who can be a volunteer

Depending on your interests and skills, we can usually make sure that you find the right volunteering opportunity to suit you. Here is a picture of a woman with a little girl in her arms.

Here is a picture of a woman with a little girl in her arms.

Volunteers can make a huge difference to the success of some of the special projects we run. We are keen to hear from anyone who thinks they can spend a little (or a lot) of time helping us. You don't have to be an experienced carer or social worker to make a difference – we would like to hear from people with business-related skills, young volunteers and university students, retired people with a bit of time on their hands – in fact, if in doubt, please call us. 

What do our volunteers say

Many of our volunteers find helping Parents for Children a very rewarding experience, but don't just take our word for it:

"I spent around six months helping Parents for Children last year and can thoroughly recommend the whole experience.

I had left my job working in Finance and IT in the City of London around eight months earlier and wanted to do something a bit more useful and challenging than just sitting around at home.

The important work that Parents for Children do was very different to my previous jobs, and so at first I was not sure how useful I could be. However, charities, like any other organisation, need a wide variety of skills and one of the great things about working for Parents for Children was being able to use my experiences to help (hopefully) while watching and learning from other people with totally different skills.

I worked when I wanted, usually around 1 or 2 days a week, met a great bunch of people who are passionate about what Parents for Children are trying to achieve, and ended up feeling exactly the same way. So much so that I am now a Trustee.

So if you want to do something useful, challenging, rewarding and good fun, why not volunteer."

Alan Hardgrave

Current Volunteer opportunities

Four2go requires various event volunteers

Four2go is an exciting series of running events in and around the Lee Valley Park. Consisting of a trail marathon, Corporate Relay, 10k, 5k and 1k running events which all end overlooking the future 2012 Olympic site, this is a special event in the running calendar.

BUT the event cannot take place without people willing to volunteer as marshals. We need around 80 people to come and help marshall (hand out water/food/direct participants etc). Could you help, or do you know someone else that can help?

Why be a marshal?

Play a key part in a major fundraising event, supporting Parents for Children
A great way to see this lovely and often overlooked part of London and Hertfordshire
Food and travel expenses provided
No previous experience needed and lots of guidance given

If you are interested in becoming a marshal or want to find out more, please email four2go@parentsforchildren.org.uk

Four2Go Assistant

This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in Parents for Children's unique race series, Four2Go, as we countdown to the 2012 London Olympics. Following last year's successful debut of Five2Go, Four2Go promises to be even bigger with it now featuring five different running events as well as a festival on Hackney Marsh. The Four2Go Assistant will provide support to the Project Manager and Director of the Four2Go race series and will gain excellent events and project management experience.

Key Tasks

Updating website

Processing applications

Investigating and contacting possible entertainment opportunities for festival

Following up existing communication to volunteer groups

Investigating and contacting further volunteer groups in key geographical areas

Updating the current database of marshals and volunteers and identifying any areas of need

Communicating this information with key agencies, e.g Hackney Council, One Step Beyond to ensure consistency of planning

Sponsors and safety personnel

Following up personal sponsorship donations

Some press and PR work would also be included depending on experience. This would involve liason with media, sending out and following up of press releases etc

Social Work experience

A volunteer seeking social work experience also required to help our duty team find the right homes for children with very special needs. The right attitude, IT skills, enthusiasm and reliability are more important than experience!

If you would like information about how to help Parents for Children as a volunteer, please send details of the skills you can offer to info@parentsforchildren.org.uk, phone 020 7520 2880 or by post to Volunteer Opportunities, Parents for Children, 3 Angel Gate, 326 City Road, London EC1V 2PT.

You may also be interested to know that you can register your interest in volunteering to help lots of other charities in the UK by going to the REACH website.