Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community, to meet new people, to gain useful work experience, to learn new skills or to share your own skills and knowledge with others.
All volunteers and work-placements at St Sidwell’s have the opportunity to have regular one-to-one meetings with one of our paid staff to talk about your role and to discuss any changes that you would like to see..
Volunteering at St. Sid’s is a two way process. You’ll be supporting us and the wider community by contributing to the day to day running of the Centre and at the same time we’ll be supporting you to fully realise your unique potential.
Volunteers at St Sidwell’s can get involved in any (or all!) of the following areas. If you have already got skills and experience, fantastic! If not, don’t worry, we’ll teach you.
Community café and food-related projects
- Show off your cooking skills (or learn to cook), help with food preparation, serve, operate the till, wash up, bake cakes, develop your barista skills making lattes, cappuccinos and expressos.
- Join other volunteers in our fight against local Food waste, making jams, chutneys, soups, etc out of surplus produce. Some of the produce is just-out-of-date fruit and veg from local supermarkets. Some is surplus produce from local gardeners, allotment holders and farms.
Community bakehouse
- Do you have a fascination with baking and a love for sourdough? If so, the bakehouse team would love to hear from you. You can give your time by volunteering with the team to learn some new skills and perhaps share some experience and skills you may already have.
- We also run a stall at a local farmers market every Thursday from 9-1pm. If you have customer service experience and love engaging with people, this volunteering role will be perfect for you.
- Our wonderful bike volunteers deliver our baked goods to many wholesalers all over the city on an electric cargo bike. If you love to keep fit and enjoy meeting new people, then please get in touch.
ESOL (English for speakers of other languages)
- We deliver hundreds of free English classes throughout the year here at Sid’s. If you have a TEFL/Celta qualification or experience in teaching, we would love to hear from you. Our free classes benefit so many people from all over the world. For those that don’t have any experience in teaching but would love to help, we also have teaching assistant roles.
Garden & grounds
- Come and help us achieve our ambition of turning St Sid’s grounds into a beautiful, green oasis – for the benefit of nature and people. We always need more nature restoration enthusiasts and green fingered gardeners to help with maintaining and enhancing the grounds.
- Not everybody knows that, hidden away, St Sidwell’s has an award-winning vegetable and herb garden, and kiwi vine. South-facing and peaceful – despite being in the centre of the city – it’s an ideal spot for keen gardeners.
Caretaking and building maintenance
- Last year, St Sid’s rented out rooms to over 300 groups and organisations. There are always rooms to be set up, tables and chairs to me moved around, things to get ready. It’s an ideal role for anyone who likes to be busy and likes to meet new people
- As in any busy community centre there are always walls that need repainting, light bulbs that need changing, things that need repairing. An ideal role for anyone with good DIY skills.
Reception
- Are you good at greeting people and helping them with their requests? If so, you might want to sign up for one of our reception shifts.