Volunteering Opportunities

Thank you for considering to offer your time to support the work of Families' House!  We would love to welcome you to our team here with whatever skills you feel you can provide.  Rest assured that you will receive valuable work opportunities to support local families.  We will also offer supervision and travel expenses.  For volunteering directly with families we offer a free 7-8 week training course.  The next course is expected to start in January 2012.

There are many different opportunities for volunteering for Families' House.  You can: provide support directly to families through our Volunteer Befriending Service; support parents through our Parent Support Groups; support families through our school holiday activities; provide administrative support in our office; offer your skills in fundraising, marketing or PR; help us develop our presence through social media; or even provide your services in redecorating our rooms or sorting out our toys.

Supporting families directly through volunteering

Our Volunteer Befriending Service trains and prepares volunteers to support families with the challenges they are facing.  Many parents have to contend with anxiety or isolation, alongside perhaps their children's challenging behaviour or disability and they really need a helping hand to support them in making the best decisions for their family.  As a volunteer you may go with the parent to appointments or encourage them to join groups in their local communities.  For more information go to our Vacancies page.

To read about Kate's volunteering experience, a volunteer for Families' House for many years, please click here.

Some of our volunteers support parents in our Parent Support Groups.  Having volunteers to support these groups is vital, as parents often have lots of experiences they need to offload, and just being a "listening ear" can make someone feel that they can go back home to face whatever challenges come their way over the next few days.  We run groups for parents who have children with challenging behaviour and a "drop-in group".   Parents are referred to the children with challenging behaviour groups due to their children being diagnosed with conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD).  Parents come to the Group to receive support from professionals and other parents, and to receive and discuss strategies to manage their children's behaviour in the most positive way.  Our weekly Drop-in Group is open to any Norfolk parent who would like some professional advice or to meet other parents.  This group is more like a Coffee Morning where parents sit and chat.  However, should anyone need to discuss a particular issue, our Family Support Service staff provide confidential advice and can refer parents to other agencies if necessary. 

We also have opportunities for volunteers to support families during the school holidays with the activities that we run in our building or out in the community.  These activities may include craft and cookery, Christmas parties, trips to the beach or the park, or trips further afield to the zoo or theme parks.  The role of the volunteer here is to support the family in having a memorable time together, in order to improve bonding and relationships within the family.

If you feel you would like to support families in this way, please contact Emma on (01603) 621702 or email her here.

Fundraising, marketing and PR volunteering opportunities

The majority of our work is funded purely through charitable trust grants and individual donations.  This means that we need to spend time promoting our work and organising events to raise money for the charity.  We would really welcome anyone who feels that could offer some time to organising events, shaking tins, or publicising what we do and this would be invaluable to us. 

If you feel you have skills in this area and would like to help, please contact Louise on (01603) 621702 or email her here.

Social Media volunteering opportunities

For those of you who really enjoy using Facebook and Twitter, we would really welcome anyone who could dedicate a few hours a week to supporting the development of these media.  If you have expertise in promoting events, campaigns or organisations in this way, we would love to hear from you. 

Please contact Louise on (01603) 621702 or email her here.

Administrative volunteering opportunities

Do you have administration and office reception skills?  Do you love dealing with people and have a day a week to spare?  We have opportunities for talented Receptionists and Administrators who would value working in the voluntary sector.

If you feel you could dedicate some time each week to supporting Families' House in this way, please contact Sally on (01603) 621702 or email her here.

One-off volunteering opportunities

If you feel able to offer some time to us perhaps decorating, organising toys, or wrapping Christmas presents, please contact us!

If you feel you could dedicate some time to supporting Families' House in this way, please contact Sally on (01603) 621702 or email her here.

Price Waterhouse Cooper decorated our "Blue" contact room.