We depend upon volunteers from our community to keep our services, administration and fundraising moving forward
Volunteering
As a small community-based charity with a small staff team, we depend upon volunteers from our community to keep our services, administration and fundraising moving forward.
Our trustees form an Executive Committee which meets regularly to manage the direction of the charity. Two sub groups meet monthly. The first leads our Event Planning and Management, and the second manages our Finances - volunteers with the necessary skills are sometimes co-opted onto these groups.
Volunteers also help in a variety of other ways:
- Volunteers helped us with the clearance of the garden site and in the management of the nature reserve, with the building of our community garden – and are now actively involved in the creation of an exciting new growing space at the De Frene Road allotment site.
- Some regular or 'core volunteers' lead or help out with co-worker garden sessions, working alongside project staff to demonstrate techniques and make co-workers feel comfortable and hopefully more confident in what they are doing. Note that we carry out an an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check for staff and volunteers who work closely with our co-workers.
- We run regular seasonal fairs and open days, as well as taking part in stalls at various local events, usually selling plants and crafts. We very much rely on volunteers to organise stalls and run these events, which are a great opportunity for fundraising and to publicise our work.
- Four times a year we distribute our supporter newsletter, which goes out to over 400 individuals, including local doctors, councillors and our funders. It is one way of keeping our charity's members informed - the 'Friends of Sydenham Garden'.
Having volunteers available to prepare, pack, label and stamp the envelopes certainly reduces the burden on the project staff. Other administration and project development tasks are also sometimes taken on by our volunteers - for example advising and helping to keep our IT up and running.
We are particularly interested to meet local volunteers with strong office skills, including database management, website management, marketing and fundraising. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, then please email or phone us telling us the types of skills you have and the type of tasks you would be willing to do. We can also share with you the kinds of projects we could do with a hand with.
Alternatively, come to one of our scheduled work mornings on Wednesdays 10am-1pm. In the near future we hope to be able to start weekend work days - keep an eye on the website or sign up to our mailing list on our home page to receive news direct to your inbox.