Volunteering (3 Viewers)

Nick · Jul 18, 2025

Does anybody do anything interesting?

I've been looking for IT related stuff that I can volunteer for but the places "advertising" are pretty much taking the piss. I was hoping I could give a few hours of my time a month to help out but these places want the world. It's worse than actual job hunting.

This isn't intended as a "oh look at me". It's more trying to find actual causes and being help to give a few hours of time to help without them trying to take the piss.

rob9872 · Jul 18, 2025

The wife's pretty much given up on blow jobs, so if you're happy to do it for free I'll send over some details.

Nick · Jul 18, 2025

rob9872 said:
The wife's pretty much given up on blow jobs, so if you're happy to do it for free I'll send over some details.

Do you pay expenses?

rob9872 · Jul 18, 2025

Nick said:
Do you pay expenses?

She calls it household expenditure, but yeah it's negotiable

Terry_dactyl · Jul 18, 2025

Nick said:
Does anybody do anything interesting?

I've been looking for IT related stuff that I can volunteer for but the places "advertising" are pretty much taking the piss. I was hoping I could give a few hours of my time a month to help out but these places want the world. It's worse than actual job hunting.

This isn't intended as a "oh look at me". It's more trying to find actual causes and being help to give a few hours of time to help without them trying to take the

I dunno the situation in Cov but there’s possibly a Volunteering Bureau you can go to. You give your details and what you’re prepared to do, and they do the rest.

Also, in my limited experience, there will be places crying out for someone who know IT stuff.

Marty · Jul 18, 2025

I do a fair bit through my work, every month or so, get given a day out to volunteer, do all sorts from painting, cutting down hedges, litter picking etc etc. if you're interested in that sort off thing, I can ask for more details and you maybe able to contact some places directly yourself and see if they have anything you can do.

rob9872 · Jul 18, 2025

Or you could have some fun committing crime. Something low level where nobody gets hurt like selling a bit of weed. If you do get caught then as a first offence you're likely to be given a couple of hundred hours volunteering.

Terry_dactyl · Jul 18, 2025

rob9872 said:
Or you could have some fun committing crime. Something low level where nobody gets hurt like selling a bit of weed. If you do get caught then as a first offence you're likely to be given a couple of hundred hours volunteering.

Everyone’s happy!

Ccfc_Addy · Jul 18, 2025

Nick said:
Does anybody do anything interesting?

I've been looking for IT related stuff that I can volunteer for but the places "advertising" are pretty much taking the piss. I was hoping I could give a few hours of my time a month to help out but these places want the world. It's worse than actual job hunting.

This isn't intended as a "oh look at me". It's more trying to find actual causes and being help to give a few hours of time to help without them trying to take the piss.

My father is a big volunteer with AbilityNet, which provides IT and technical support to those in need: Join Our Volunteers | AbilityNet

Nick · Jul 18, 2025

Ccfc_Addy said:
My father is a big volunteer with AbilityNet, which provides IT and technical support to those in need: Join Our Volunteers | AbilityNet

Thanks. I'll definitely sign up now

CCFCSteve · Jul 19, 2025

Age Uk telephone friendship calls. There’s a lot of lonely oldies out there.

SBAndy · Jul 19, 2025

CCFCSteve said:
Age Uk telephone friendship calls. There’s a lot of lonely oldies out there.

Don’t need to tell Nick, they take all his doctors appointments.

shmmeee · Jul 19, 2025

CCFCSteve said:
Age Uk telephone friendship calls. There’s a lot of lonely oldies out there.

Just get a job at a call centre and get paid for talking to lonely old people.

lifeskyblue · Jul 19, 2025

Wife does a morning a week in a charity shop.
I do a gardening group with people who have learning difficulties (4 or 5 clients and a full time member of the charity and me).

Sky Blue Pete · Jul 20, 2025

Independent monitoring board in prisons is interesting but takes a bit more time and it’s pretty much all paper inside the prison

Prison volunteers doing extraordinary jobs - Independent Monitoring Boards

Independent Monitoring Boards are staffed by unpaid prison volunteers in every prison in England and Wales, and immigration detention facility across the UK.

imb.org.uk

Good for you Nick

shmmeee · Jul 20, 2025

School governor as well your local school almost certainly needs one. Lots of boring meetings but vital.

shmmeee · Jul 20, 2025

If you’re a fan of trees:

Home - Coventry Tree Warden Network

Coventry Tree Warden Network (CTWN) The aim of the group this year is to protect and plant more trees and keep spreadingthe word about their huge importance to our health and well-being,especially in relation to all the planned building development. Coventry City Council have an updated DRAFT...

ctwn.org.uk

Sky_Blue_Dreamer · Jul 20, 2025

I still think it would be interesting to spend just one day where no-one did any work they weren't paid for. I genuinely think society would collapse if we did. People would definitely die though, hence why you couldn't realistically call for it and those that get paid a lot would lay the blame on those doing it for nothing.

Then have a day where no CEO or executive worked. I bet we wouldn't even notice.

Captain Dart · Jul 20, 2025

Sky_Blue_Dreamer said:
I still think it would be interesting to spend just one day where no-one did any work they weren't paid for. I genuinely think society would collapse if we did. People would definitely die though, hence why you couldn't realistically call for it and those that get paid a lot would lay the blame on those doing it for nothing.

Then have a day where no CEO or executive worked. I bet we wouldn't even notice.

The old joke is if the CEO is missing no one notices but if the janitor doesn't restock the loo rolls everyone notices.

Farmer Jim · Jul 20, 2025

I do two afternoons a week volunteering :

I do a Tuesday afternoon for a small local mental health charity, where I meet up with an isolated elderly fella, who has controlled mental health problems and spend a couple of hours with him - go for a walk in a local park and go for a coffee.

He`s become a proper mate now and even if the charity had it`s funding pulled, I`d still go and see him once a week.

Wednesday I go to a local school and help kids who`ve fallen behind in year 3 with their reading. ( Started with them in year 2 and I`ll stay with them until they leave school now.

The charity is called : SCHOOL READERS and they`re always looking for people across the whole of the UK.

Last week was my last week with them until the new term and the whole class bought me a little present and a thank you card, plus the teacher personally thanked me for everything I`d done with one little girl in particular ( she`s gone from being barely able to read, to quite a competent reader ) I`m not normally an emotional person, but I filled up and became quite emotional

Volunteering is a wonderful thing, as you choose to do it because you want to, not like work, where you have to do it.
You`re giving something back, making a difference and you`re also enriching your own life at the same time too.

I`ve met some truly wonderful and inspirational people through my volunteering and it really makes you realise, that they`re a lot of amazing and selfless people in the world, who just quietly get on with things and fly totally under the radar.

shmmeee · Jul 20, 2025

Hospital Radio still exists and is looking for presenters.

Join Us – Coventry Hospital Radio

Nick · Jul 23, 2025

I've been in touch with a couple of places about looking after their website.

They want a full interview process and all of the stuff as if I'm applying for a full time job. Got sent a full job description and one of them said they wanted 4 hours, 3 days a week.

Another one said they couldn't tell me their plans and what they need because it wouldn't be fair on other "candidates".

Is that how it is now? I just thought places would be crying out for people offering their time and skills for free .

Brighton Sky Blue · Jul 23, 2025

Have been jointly running our childrens' chess club in Cheylesmore for almost a decade now, the club's been going for 12 years. Started out with a handful of children, we now have 40-50 turn up every week with more on a waiting list and plenty of our members who've represented England at junior level or even reached master strength. Been harder with my insomnia but still go along most Saturday mornings and all of us running it are volunteers.

Our website is...dated, though and our online presence is mostly just Facebook posts. @Nick if you were seriously up for revamping our website and looking after it, we'd really appreciate it.

Farmer Jim · Jul 23, 2025

Nick said:
I've been in touch with a couple of places about looking after their website.

They want a full interview process and all of the stuff as if I'm applying for a full time job. Got sent a full job description and one of them said they wanted 4 hours, 3 days a week.

Another one said they couldn't tell me their plans and what they need because it wouldn't be fair on other "candidates".

Is that how it is now? I just thought places would be crying out for people offering their time and skills for free .

They still have to cover their arses and go through all the stuff a regular employer would have to do.

Anything at all to do with kids or could potentially put you in contact with kids, requires a DBS ( the old CRB )

Most charities have mandatory online training too.

When I first started over a decade ago, I though the exact same thing and from memory, it took me three months from applying before I actually started doing anything.

It puts a lot of people off, as they just thing " can`t be arsed with all that messing around " and the charities know this, but their hands are tied by the red tape involved.

oscillatewildly · 2025-07-30T21:10:09+0100

Farmer Jim said:
I do two afternoons a week volunteering :

I do a Tuesday afternoon for a small local mental health charity, where I meet up with an isolated elderly fella, who has controlled mental health problems and spend a couple of hours with him - go for a walk in a local park and go for a coffee.

He`s become a proper mate now and even if the charity had it`s funding pulled, I`d still go and see him once a week.

Wednesday I go to a local school and help kids who`ve fallen behind in year 3 with their reading. ( Started with them in year 2 and I`ll stay with them until they leave school now.

The charity is called : SCHOOL READERS and they`re always looking for people across the whole of the UK.

Last week was my last week with them until the new term and the whole class bought me a little present and a thank you card, plus the teacher personally thanked me for everything I`d done with one little girl in particular ( she`s gone from being barely able to read, to quite a competent reader ) I`m not normally an emotional person, but I filled up and became quite emotional

Volunteering is a wonderful thing, as you choose to do it because you want to, not like work, where you have to do it.
You`re giving something back, making a difference and you`re also enriching your own life at the same time too.

I`ve met some truly wonderful and inspirational people through my volunteering and it really makes you realise, that they`re a lot of amazing and selfless people in the world, who just quietly get on with things and fly totally under the radar.

That’s great.
I’m on the cusp of early retirement (fingers crossed) I’ve never liked golf and have no intention of taking it up.
Can’t say I’ve actually got any hobbies but feel the need to partly fill my newly acquired free time and volunteering is definitely something I want to do - just not sure in which area.

Nick · 2025-07-30T21:40:54+0100

oscillatewildly said:
That’s great.
I’m on the cusp of early retirement (fingers crossed) I’ve never liked golf and have no intention of taking it up.
Can’t say I’ve actually got any hobbies but feel the need to partly fill my newly acquired free time and volunteering is definitely something I want to do - just not sure in which area.

I thought it would be easy to find something and people would be crying out for help for free.
Most seem to want free joeys.

Farmer Jim · 2025-07-31T08:28:29+0100

oscillatewildly said:
That’s great.
I’m on the cusp of early retirement (fingers crossed) I’ve never liked golf and have no intention of taking it up.
Can’t say I’ve actually got any hobbies but feel the need to partly fill my newly acquired free time and volunteering is definitely something I want to do - just not sure in which area.

Have a look at the School Readers charity.

They`re crying out for volunteers nationally and once you sign up it all happens very quickly compared to other charities ( from my own experiences )

I was given the choice of three local schools who wanted a volunteer and chose a pioneering local primary / junior school, which is a mix of regular kids and kids with physical disabilities, such a cerebral palsy.

You get to choose what day you go in and for how long.

I`ve been with my class for just over a year now and it`s hard to put into words how rewarding it is.

Two of the kids I`ve been reading with, have gone from barely being able to read, to being competent readers in that space of time.

The teachers just haven`t got the time to spend reading with the kids that have fallen behind, so that`s where I come in and it looks to be making a big difference. ( I even helped the teacher put the yearly reading assessment together for the two kids I mentioned ! )

It sounds cheesy, but you walk out of the school and feel like your glowing, as you feel so good, as you know you really are making a big difference to the kids that you`re helping.

The only problem is, that every child in the class now wants to read with me

Farmer Jim · 2025-07-31T08:33:10+0100

Nick said:
I thought it would be easy to find something and people would be crying out for help for free.
Most seem to want free joeys.

The reason for this, is that charities and volunteers are more and more filling the void where professionals like Social Workers used to be.

When I did voluntary work for the big national charity Scope, at a local childrens hospital, I was doing things like putting families in touch with support services, helping them fill out benefit forms etc.

This was something that used to be done by an onsite dedicated social worker, who went when all the cuts started to bite.

Brighton Sky Blue · 2025-07-31T08:42:09+0100

Farmer Jim said:
Have a look at the School Readers charity.

They`re crying out for volunteers nationally and once you sign up it all happens very quickly compared to other charities ( from my own experiences )

I was given the choice of three local schools who wanted a volunteer and chose a pioneering local primary / junior school, which is a mix of regular kids and kids with physical disabilities, such a cerebral palsy.

You get to choose what day you go in and for how long.

I`ve been with my class for just over a year now and it`s hard to put into words how rewarding it is.

Two of the kids I`ve been reading with, have gone from barely being able to read, to being competent readers in that space of time.

The teachers just haven`t got the time to spend reading with the kids that have fallen behind, so that`s where I come in and it looks to be making a big difference. ( I even helped the teacher put the yearly reading assessment together for the two kids I mentioned ! )

It sounds cheesy, but you walk out of the school and feel like your glowing, as you feel so good, as you know you really are making a big difference to the kids that you`re helping.

The only problem is, that every child in the class now wants to read with me

Teachers are crying out for teaching assistants, so what you’re doing is a great help. Great of you to put in that commitment

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