Volunteering is an amazing way to give something back to the community or to keep busy, learn new skills, socialise and develop as a person. Indeed many of the social outreach projects, in particular, could not run without dedicated volunteers helping out regularly or in one-off events.
These can range from;
- Joining the Street Pastors teams either on the streets or prayer cover and getting the kettle on when they come back to the base to warm up.
- Helping the Christians against poverty (CAP) manager befriend clients to follow up companionship and new ways of dealing with life.
- Redeeming Our Communities (ROC) are looking for people to assist with several community-focused projects around Weston-super-Mare.
- Helping in the warehouse or front of desk at the Foodbankon a weekly team or in one-off supermarket collections, or even driving around picking up donations of food for them.
- Putting on the kettle and serving the community at open Coffee Mornings.
- How about helping cook or serve at a "Free meal club" helping the most vulnerable in our community. Our Winter Warmth and Summer Comfort groups always need help.
- There are lots of ways that you can help with the work of Weston & District Churches Together! Whether your skills are in admin, creative arts, media, or ecumenical / community projects, do be in touch if you would like to find out more.
All of the Social Outreach projects listed will be reliant on volunteers and fresh help is always welcome, so the list above is just an example of the range and diversity of volunteer opportunities that await you.
To give you an example of the amount of volunteering that is happening week in week out by yourselves and others in our community, When we did the Cinnamon Network Faith Action Audit* in the Weston Area in 2014, these were the results:
- 233 Social Outreach programmes were listed from the 65% of the Faith organisations in the Weston area that participated.
- 52,440 people benefited in 2014 from the help that these projects offered.
- 160 was the total number of paid staff
- 1,670 was the total number of volunteers
- 243,044 was the total volunteer hours per year
- £2,380,998 was the total value of paid and volunteer hours!!
That is a staggering amount of dedication and hard work and we would like to say a huge WELL DONE! to all of you.
The needs of the community seemed to have not lessened though and volunteers move on, so the need for further help is always there. please consider helping out, whether you are a "believer" or not, it doesn't matter. the heart of each project is to help those who are lonely, hungry, desperate and just plain fed-up to feel some love, some hope and some good old fashioned human companionship.
Contact the projects directly via email and share your interest in finding out what help they need.
*For a PDF of the Faith Action Audit results click on the attachment below.