Behind the scenes volunteering

[Spinney]

I used to volunteer with the National Trust when I lived up north - the Silverdale branch had a working party every week maintaining the limestone landscapes (this mostly involved cutting down trees!).
But they were always on weekdays.

When I moved south I tried to find a group but the arrangements seemed to be different - just the odd working party now and then. The NT down here seem to have more need for face-to-face type of volunteering (like being room guides in properties), which didn't appeal to me. But I think quite a few conservation type opportunities may involve weekend work, and many can be done occasionally, rather than having to commit yourself to regular volunteering (if that is what you want).

 

[shouldbeinbed]

[QUOTE 4048867, member: 9609"]Ultimate behind the scenes would be to simply walk along the beaches and pick up plastic waste, and then you really don't have to make arrangements with anyone. you can just do it any time you choose.[/QUOTE]

That'd be lovely. Every day a different scene even if walking the same.stretch, and maybe a wee bit of cash for recycling too.

Wafer does mention a rural location as opposed to saying coastal etc so maybe not quite at the seaside tho.

Edit: Somerset/Dorset border.

 

[Wafer]

Thanks all, lots of good ideas and points.
Did a bit of extra googling last night and found the canal that runs about a quarter of a mile from our house is maintained with the help of volunteers and they are running odd days doing hedge laying at this time of year it seems, so that'd be pretty easy to get involved with despite not being particularly green fingered! Also found an advert asking for dog walkers for people who can't do it themselves, which sounds not only worthwhile but in my experience dogs are easier to get on with than humans

Beaches are a little far away, but probably plenty of other countryside places where litter picking would be easy to do and there are National Trust places dotted around, hadn't really thought of looking at them.

I quite like the idea of some manual labour as a bit of variation to the office job but I have stronger skills in IT related stuff and being in a rural location where the nearest small town is a good 10 minutes drive, the idea of being able to do stuff over the internet from my home computer (especially as we've just got fast internet!) would be quite convenient and easier to do without having the factor in travel times.
Foodbanks is definitely something to look into as well though, I drive a cavernous estate I can make use of!

Ideally I'd love to be doing something that helps some of the less fortunate among us, perhaps some of those people wrongly labeled as benefits scroungers who need a bit of help to get going rather than the derision and criticism the media circus throws at them. In the future if I build up some confidence with it I thought doing something like mentoring would be good as I get the impression some people just seem to make bad decisions and some nudges in the right direction might be all they need at times. I need to start off on something a bit less direct and dare I say it 'easier' first though, so thanks for all the pointers

 

[roadrash]

how about behind the scenes work at st johns ambulance or the red cross

 

[Ganymede]

Thanks all, lots of good ideas and points.
Did a bit of extra googling last night and found the canal that runs about a quarter of a mile from our house is maintained with the help of volunteers and they are running odd days doing hedge laying at this time of year it seems, so that'd be pretty easy to get involved with despite not being particularly green fingered! Also found an advert asking for dog walkers for people who can't do it themselves, which sounds not only worthwhile but in my experience dogs are easier to get on with than humans

Beaches are a little far away, but probably plenty of other countryside places where litter picking would be easy to do and there are National Trust places dotted around, hadn't really thought of looking at them.

I quite like the idea of some manual labour as a bit of variation to the office job but I have stronger skills in IT related stuff and being in a rural location where the nearest small town is a good 10 minutes drive, the idea of being able to do stuff over the internet from my home computer (especially as we've just got fast internet!) would be quite convenient and easier to do without having the factor in travel times.
Foodbanks is definitely something to look into as well though, I drive a cavernous estate I can make use of!

Ideally I'd love to be doing something that helps some of the less fortunate among us, perhaps some of those people wrongly labeled as benefits scroungers who need a bit of help to get going rather than the derision and criticism the media circus throws at them. In the future if I build up some confidence with it I thought doing something like mentoring would be good as I get the impression some people just seem to make bad decisions and some nudges in the right direction might be all they need at times. I need to start off on something a bit less direct and dare I say it 'easier' first though, so thanks for all the pointers

This is great Wafer! Mentoring is a brilliant thing to do - incredibly effective. I think it's brililant that you are looking at the more challenging side of charitable volunteering - some causes are really hard to get support for because people just blanket-blame the recipients as a group. How about spending time with young people with autism? it can be really fulfilling and is an absolute godsend to their parents - an autistic teenage boy, for example, wouldn't expect a lot of chat but would need a responsible adult.

Good luck!

 

[Wafer]

In time perhaps We'll see what I feel I can manage, don't want to bite off more than I can chew, but yeah, if possible I'd love to give some support to those kinds of people.
My job involves a lot of looking at demographics and deprivation stats and it strikes me that though some people can break out from relative poverty and deprivation, many are stuck in the cycle and need some kind of intervention to help but the effects of breaking them out of the cycle can be massive, not just on their own quality of life but on the reduced demand for public services etc...