If you've got some spare time on your hands and are keen to spend it doing something for the greater good, there are plenty of charitable organisations where you can volunteer in London.
From helping convert buses into homeless shelters to teaching disadvantaged children how to read, these are just some of the volunteering schemes looking for your help.
For the past nine years, the team behind Wrap Up London have made it their mission to collect old, unwanted coats and give them to charities that support the homeless, refugees and people living in poverty or fleeing domestic violence. The campaign leaps back into action again this November and there are several ways you can get involved.
For starters, you can donate a coat: the charity will have representatives with collection bags positioned at major London tube stations (including King’s Cross, London Bridge and Victoria) between Monday 11 and Wednesday 12 November (7am – 11am). Those with a bit more time on their hands can join the team collecting at the stations, who will also be running a pre-collection campaign on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 November (7am – 9am / 9am – 11am). All coats must be donated by 24 November, but if you can’t make it to a collection point by then, you can also donate as little as £3 to help the charity run its operation this winter.
Following the collection, Wrap Up London is also looking for volunteers to sort the coats into different piles for men, women, children and babies, ensuring all are in fit condition to pass on. And if you own a van or large vehicle, you can help by transporting the coats to charity bases across the city.
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Doorstep Library is a charity committed to bringing the joy of reading into the homes of disadvantaged families across London. Children from the poorest families are less likely to have books in their homes or be read to by their parents. As a result, research has shown these children are more likely to fall behind with their studies.
As a volunteer with Doorstep Library you'll work as part of a pair, visiting the same families once a week and reading to their little ones aged 11 and under. Volunteers are provided with books and stalls to take with them on their visits.
There are currently 12 Doorstep Libraries across London, with projects running in Hammersmith, Fulham, Westminster and Lambeth. Sessions might be tricky to attend if you work standard office hours; visits take place on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and usually run from 3:45pm to 6:30pm, or 4:30pm to 7pm.
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When Dan Atkins found his friend sleeping rough, he used the skills he’d harboured through his career building promotional buses to refurbish a bus for his friend to live in. Rather than stopping there, Atkins has since founded a charity, Busses 4 Homeless, converting further buses – discarded because they no longer meet emissions targets – into spaces for homeless people to live.
The busses are currently stationed in Croydon and between them provide facilities for eating, sleeping, wellbeing and learning. Atkins and his team rely on the support of volunteers to convert and run the bus-cum-shelters, and are on the lookout for all kinds of help, from carpenters and plumbers to decorators, medical professionals and fitness providers.
Time poor? The scheme is also looking for corporate sponsors to get behind its crowdfunding campaign.
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Dress for Success is a charity with a simple mission: to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing them with a network of support, professional attire and the development tools needed to thrive in their work and home life.
At their centres in Kensington and Shoreditch, the Dress for Success team run free-to-attend sessions for women who have been referred to them by job centres, charities and social housing providers, helping them prepare for job interviews. In the sessions, the women are given one-to-one interview preparation coaching, and an outfit to wear to the interview free of charge. A stylist is on hand to help the individual put together an outfit appropriate for the interview.
Dress for Success looks to volunteers for help with everything from providing career guidance to preparing the boutique (sorting, hanging and steaming the donated clothes) and styling the clients who attend the sessions. You could also become a member of the scheme’s Little Black Dress Club, a group of philanthropic, influential individuals who support the charity financially and are an integral part of its community.
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If you have only a limited amount of free time and feel torn between spending it exercising or doing your bit for the world, we have just the initiative for you. The Green Gym, run by the community volunteering charity (TCV), is a nation-wide conservation project with an emphasis on getting fit while working in green spaces. Volunteers take part in group warm-up activities, before spending the majority of the session working on guided activities such as planting trees, sowing meadows or building wildlife ponds.
The Green Gym is as much for the good of its participants as it is that of the environment. Studies have found that taking part enhances mental wellbeing – through having contact with nature and the social benefits of group activities – and because of this, some GPs now prescribe Green Gym sessions to their patients.
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The team behind Walthamstow-based café Eggs and Bread believe everyone deserves a cracking start to their day. To help people achieve this, they offer a breakfast of you’ve-guessed-what on a pay-what-you-can scheme. Diners here are expected to make their own boiled egg and soldiers in the kitchen area (a supervisor is on hand to help those who need it), before taking a seat at one of six communal tables in the café to eat and chat with other guests. Once finished, guests are expected to clear up after themselves.
So, where do you come in? You can either stop by the café for breakfast and a hot cuppa, and pay for someone else’s who can’t afford it. Or take on some volunteering shifts to help run the café between 7am and 12pm.
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There are a number of organisations looking for volunteers to work with the refugees who have made it safely to the UK. Breaking Barriers is one such charity, focusing on helping refugees become integrated into society, find employment that matches their skill set and get settled in their new homes. The organisation is looking for volunteers able to provide one-to-one advice and guidance to refugees, as well as those who can provide tuition in English.
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It won’t come as news that loneliness among the elderly is an epidemic in the UK. Roughly two million people aged 75 or older live alone and a similar number say they feel ignored or invisible. Thankfully, there are several charities working to combat this – and they’re keen for your support.
Contact the Elderly holds Sunday afternoon tea parties for over-75s in a bid to tackle loneliness and social isolation. To run these events on a monthly basis, the charity looks to a nationwide network of 12,000 volunteers to do everything from transporting attendees to putting together a delicious spread. There’s also Friends of the Elderly, a charity which, among other things, runs a ‘Be a Friend’ campaign, through which volunteers can help with tasks including gardening and visiting pets when their owners are unwell.
Those living in south-west London, meanwhile, might want to get involved with The Silver Line, a Battersea-based charity that runs a confidential, volunteer-run helpline offering advice to older people dealing with loneliness and isolation. The line is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Volunteers are expected to commit regular, three-house shifts between 8am and 5pm.
If you’re an animal lover and want to dedicate your time to helping protect those in the wild, get involved with the London Wildlife Trust. The charity looks after 41 nature reserves in the capital, and relies on a large body of volunteers to help London’s wildlife thrive across these sites.
The charity is a great one to get involved with if you’re looking to help out with one-off events rather than taking on regular shifts. There’s also plenty of ways you can help out: from joining conservation work on the likes of grassland management and river restoration, to building fences, surveying dragonflies and creating rain gardens. If you’re a people person, you can give guided walks and talks, while those who prefer to stay warm and dry can channel their energies into helping out in the office.
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