Environment and Conservation

The Wild Nature Reserve measure wild Masai giraffes for a study of growth and survival. They need your help to analyse the thousands of photos triggered as giraffes pass the cameras.

We’re challenging you to keep enjoying nature, whilst staying at home. Explore your garden and appreciate the amazing diversity of wildlife found there. We’re aiming to gain an insight into the species found across Cheshire’s garden habitats and would love you to join us through recording the wildlife you see in ‘Your Patch’.

Instant Wild 

empowers you to take part in vital conservation work by bringing you LIVE images and videos from amazing locations all around the world for you to identify.

Penguin Watch. 

Count penguins in remote regions to help researchers understand their lives and environement.

eBird.

Contribute to global birdwatching sightings and join this global birdwatching community. More than a 100 billion sightings are contributed annually by eBirders. 

People and Communities

As you play Freerice and answer questions right, advertisements appear on your screen. When you see one of these advertisements, you trigger a financial payment to the World Food Programme to support changing lives around the world.

Every Name Counts

This project aims to transcribe information from the Arolsen Archives which contains information on the victims and survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. This project aims to transcribe this information into an online archive, to ensure that every name is counted and ensure that people can find out the fates of their relatives.

Be My Eyes is a free app that connects blind and low vision people with volunteers for visual assistance through video calls.

Call Companions for Re-Engage make regular telephone calls to lonely and isolated older people providing a lifeline of friendship. The regular chat and companionship offers a vital link with the outside world.

Localgiving is a not-for-profit that specialises in supporting vital grassroots causes that are working on the frontline in the current pandemic and desperately need more volunteers.  This digital volunteering focuses on tasks that can be completed remotely wherever the volunteer is based, rather than face-to-face volunteering. This means that students can gain applicable experience of working within the charity sector from their own homes.

The United Nations(UN) have a huge range of online volunteering projects, which allows volunteers to support and address sustainable development challenges worldwide. 

Shout is the UK’s first free, confidential 24/7 text support service. Shout Volunteers are the first point of contact to someone in distress who uses the text service. You will need to be resilient and commit to the training offered for this rewarding role.

Shout are not accepting UK based volunteers at the moment due to high demand, but be sure to check back periodically if you are interested in this role. 

ILGA World - The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association have lots of roles to get involved with including translating reports and documents from English into other languages, proofreading, graphic design, videomaking and creating social media content.

Hidaya provide support, education and welfare for the Muslim LGBTQI+ community. Fill out their volunteer application form on their website. 

Girls fleeing female genital mutilation (FGM) can come from very remote villages which are not on any map, making it difficult for help to reach these villages.  You can volunteer your time to add roads and building into a free open-source map of the world.

Languages

LibriVox is a group of worldwide volunteers who read and record public domain texts creating free public domain audiobooks for download from their website and other digital library hosting sites on the internet.

Phrase Detectives is the place for lovers of language and literature, where you can work together to improve future generations of language technology. By indicating relationships between words and phrases you will help to create a resource that is rich in linguistic information.

The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, in combination with others, needs your help to classify some very short recordings of babies’ speech sounds to help better understand the very first stages of language learning!

Translators without Borders is a non-profit working towards a world where knowledge knows no language barriers. If you speak a second language you can use your skills to help provide translation and simplification services.

Education Saves Lives create simple, interactive lessons about health and other topics to help people live more safely. Volunteers are needed to translate these videos from English into other languages to help make them accessible to as many people as possible.

Letter writing and other crafts

The charity helping you to ‘Post a Smile on a Sick Child’s Face’ by the sending of cards, letters, emails and little gifts to seriously ill children and their siblings in the UK.

Make a Syringe Driver Bag! Several hospices and the NHS give out hand-made bags to patients who are receiving constant pain medication and therefore, need to carry syringe drivers. The shoulder bags mean that the patient can carry the device around with them in a discreet way so that they are able to continue with their day-to-day activities.

Take part in our Letters against Loneliness student-led project to help combat loneliness. As a volunteer on this project you would write lettters to elderly people in the local community who are socially isolated. 

Please note that this opportunity is on pause over summer and will open for recruitment again in the new academic year.
 

The Crisis Project is a campaign to raise awareness and take action, harnessing the power of social media. One of their projects provides volunteers the opportunity to write letters to key workers in the NHS. By signing up you can be paired up with a key worker to write a bespoke letter to.

The Innocent Big Knit - Age UK.

Knit the little hats that are sold on Innocent drinks - every bottle sold with a hat helps raise 25p for Age UK.

Knit clothing, blankets and toys for premature babies. Before you get started, check which items your local neonatal unit need.

Knit / crochet blankets to go inside memory boxes. The blankets are a very special part of the box as each one is handmade and can help bring comfort to parents after the death of a baby.

Local Virtual/Telephone Opportunities

Cheshire CDT (Changing Lives Together)
Buddy or Befriender

 
Due to the current situation with Covid 19 (Coronavirus) CCDT are offering a Telephone Befriending Service to all of their clients. 

Age UK Cheshire

Telephone Befriending Volunteer

The Age UK Cheshire Telephone Befriending is a telephone befriending service that operates across the whole of Cheshire. The service is for people who are over 50 and are experiencing loneliness or isolation and would like regular companionship through a weekly phonecall.

JobSense (Centre of sign, sight, sound)

Admin Support

To provide admin support to the JobSense team who support participants who are experiencing sight loss.

This role is virtual and volunteers are based at home.

Responsibilities include: General admin tasks. Taking minutes during meetings, Typing up notes during participant meetings, Filing, Photocopying and creating participant packs, Managing diaries and booking appointments, Data entry, Social Media (ie updating social media sites)  Marking work/workbooks, Any other relevant duties

JobSense (Centre of sign, sight, sound)

Information Volunteer

Purpose of role: To provide information delivery and promotional support to the JobSense team.

Due to Covid this role is being carried out remotely.  Volunteers are expected to work from home and attend virtual networking meetings, events and distribute information to relevant organisations to promote JobSense team who support participants who are experiencing sight loss.

Making Space

Telephone and Virtual Befriender

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, a lot of the groups that we usually run to reduce social isolation are unable to take place. There are a number of people who are feeling isolated and would benefit from having someone to chat to giving them something to look forward to and supporting their mental health.

Snow Angel CIC

Telephone Befriending

This involves calling an older person usually on a weekly basis for a chat and we provide guidelines on positive conversations during the pandemic. Since March we have had an increase in younger volunteers and they have all had positive experiences making connections with the older generation. They have said that they have made new friends and that it has had a positive impact on their mental health.

Snow Angels CIC

Help from Home Volunteer

This involves making, creating or suggesting activities for an older person to keep them occupied during lockdown, which can be done in the comfort of your own home. Since the first lockdown, we have provided our service users with books, crochet kits, word search books, colouring books with pencils but now we are running out of ideas to keep their mind busy with things that can be easily sent. We would be very grateful for students with creativity and imagination to make or put forward activities for our older people to do on a bi-weekly basis.

Cheshire West Citizens Advice

Citizens Advice Volunteering Coaching Programme

Citizens Advice Volunteering Coaching programme is up and running across Cheshire West.  It's free, online, takes about an hour to do and there's a certificate at the end.  The aim is to equip people with knowledge of what help and support is available locally and how to connect people to that support.  To take part click on Citizens Advice Cheshire West Logo.

Advocacy and Campaigning

Mind - Youth Voice Network

A way in which young people (11-24 yrs) in England and Wales can voice their thoughts to help shape Mind and their work. Roles include blogging/vlogging on topics that are important to the volunteer and having opportunities to shape Mind's work nationally. 

Join a group of like-minded active citizens who are enthusiastic about effecting change in their communities.