Across Gateshead there are a range of different projects needing support within services and groups active in Gateshead.
Group volunteering involves 2 or more people coming together to volunteer over one day be delivering a specific set of tasks. The one-off day projects are tailored to each group of volunteers depending on location, skills needed, experience and area of interest as well as any other influences.
There are a variety of themes of group volunteering to try and highlight specific areas of interest. Included below is a lost of the current areas. Group volunteers are not limited to this list, it just provides somewhere to start from. If there is a particular area you are interested in which isn't included in the list, please let us know and a project can be tailored for you.
- litter picking at various locations across Gateshead
- gardening and environmental type of activities including tasks within school, community centres and other projects e.g. community gardens, ponds, litter picking on grounds, painting of play equipment
- helping groups develop their website and social media presence. Giving advice on logos, or instructions on the best practices etc. or other technical support. Any other type of digital support such as informal training on how to use technology devices such as I Pads for example. Training to a group's regular volunteers or service users for example, PowerPoint or any other type of computer programmes.
- painting of community facilities such as community halls, and spaces
- helping at lunch groups involving cooking meals, serving food, chatting to service users, playing games and clearing away
- helping groups to look at their books and other organisational type of support
- helping at volunteer task days within Gateshead's open spaces and parks across Gateshead such as Friends of Felling park & Friends of Chase Park
- helping at various food banks and food networks with the preparing of parcels to hand out and sorting of donations
- helping at local charity stores, sorting through donations, window dressing etc. one recent example if some employee volunteers who are artists will be painting a feature on the window of a local charity shop to attract more customers
- getting involved in fund raising events such as activities to support Special Olympics, Gateshead. These can be dependent upon what each group would like to do but could include, tombolas, raffles, sponsored events, bag packs etc.
Once a team has highlighted an area of interest some specific projects will be provided to choose from.
The groups will the be supported prior, during and after the event. This will include risk assessments and a case study of the day.