Volunteer
with us
You can make a difference to so many local lives across our community.
Volunteer
You can help our work become a reality
Do you want to help make a difference to hundreds of local lives? We are always keen to work with people who share our passion for positive change for our people and our local community.
Our ambitions
Health & Wellbeing
We want to work with our local community to improve health and wellbeing.
Reducing Poverty
We want to work with our local community to reduce the impacts of poverty.
Children & Young People
We want to help and support our children and young people reach their full potential.
Proud of our community
We want to make our local community a place where people feel pride in where they live and work.
Why you should get involved
- Help build your confidence, skills and experience by being a part of our team.
- Help deliver valuable and life saving initiatives to the local community such as Your Local Pantry, knowing that you are bringing hope to hundreds of locals.
- We work with so many partners in our local community so our volunteering opportunities are varied and don't just have to be at our community centre.
- We have a number of different volunteering opportunities and ways to volunteer to suit your experience, skills, interests and availability.
- Build meaningful relationships and meet new people.
Varied opportunities
Our opportunities
We have a number of volunteering roles to suit your experience, skills, interests and availability.
See roles
Hear from our volunteers
Why volunteer?
Find out what it's like to be a part of the NSDT team and what our volunteers get up to.
See more
Make a real difference
Help our community
You can help make a real difference to locals and our community, by being a part of our life saving initiatives.
Volunteer
FAQs
Current Opportunities
We have a range of flexible volunteering opportunities available throughout the year to suit your skills, experience and interests. All vacant volunteer roles will be advertised here. See an opportunity that takes your interests? Get in touch today to see how you can help make a difference.
Volunteering should not cost you anything, so in accordance with our volunteer policy we pay out of pocket expenses at varying rates, for example costs of travel.
Trustee / Director Role
- Being part of the North Smethwick Development Trust (NSDT) is both exciting and challenging. We are looking for team players with a variety of skills who will help to drive the organisation forward from its current position to one that is stronger, more confident and with increased credibility with our members.
- Are you…
- Passionate about communities and want to make a difference?
- Do you have experience of the issues faced by our charities caused and want to give something back?
- A good communicator?
- Team focused?
- Flexible and Objective?
- If, the answer is yes, then why not become a Trustee?
- Our vision is:
- “North Smethwick Development Trust (NSDT) will work to achieve the social, economic and environmental regeneration of North Smethwick”. We do do this through our 4 ambitions:
- – Improving health and wellbeing
- – Reducing the impacts of poverty
- – Supporting our children and young people
- – Being proud of our community
- If you would like to use your skills and experience to become a Trustee/Director to help us shape the activities and services for local people living in North Smethwick, we very much look forward to hearing from you. We are particularly keen to encourage people under the age of 30 to join our Board and women.
- Trustees
- For information regarding the role of a Trustee, please see www.charitycommission.gov.uk
- We are looking for committed individuals to expand the range of Trustee skills as well as to consolidate existing skills with an eye to succession planning. We require dynamic and motivated people who are sympathetic to the aims and objectives of NSDT to fulfil these voluntary duties. Trustees contribute valuably to the Board by giving strategic direction; setting overall policy; defining goals and setting targets; evaluating performance; ensuring the charity’s effective and efficient administration and financial stability.
- We want to have a wide range of people on the Board, and seek to be representative of the diverse communities of North Smethwick. There is no need to have previous trustee experience to apply as training will be provided. An interest in supporting communities is necessary.
- Trustees are expected to:
- -attend up to seven meetings a year including quarterly Board meetings (all currently on Thursday evenings) and an annual planning day;
- – contribute advice and support on charity and trust topic; and
- – attend events.
- All travel and out of pocket expenses will be paid.
- How to apply: If you would like to express your interest in this position, please do contact our CEO for more information or to receive our Trustee/Director Recruitment and information pack, available on request from our Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary, Jennifer Harrison BEM at jennifer.harrison@nsdt.org.uk.
- Thank you
Social Media Support
As a Social Media Volunteer you will be supporting us keeping our social media and digital platforms up to date with all the activities and services we offer.
Community centre support
As a community centre support volunteer you will be supporting us with every day tasks, such as helping sort out donations, welcome people to the centre’s activities, help keep our outside space and gardens tidy. This is a flexible role for general support and we have a variety of different tasks throughout the year.
Newsletter support
As a newsletter volunteer you will supporting us in the writing and designing of quarterly newsletters to promote and tell stories from our local community.
Photographic / Creative Arts Volunteer
As a photographic and/or creative arts volunteers you will help enable NSDT to expand its arts offer to the local community by engaging more service users in our arts activities including helping to organise theatre productions, art exhibitions and other exciting art activities.
Admin Assistant Volunteer
As a administrative volunteer, you will support us maintaining community centre notices boards and support with generic office tasks to help the centre’s smooth operations.
Pantry Assistant - Brasshouse Pantry
- Want to help feed local families in our community? We are looking for volunteers who want to work in our pantry. Our volunteers will help ensure our pantry is well stocked and offer assistance to members when choosing items.
Our volunteers help support our life saving initiatives and make our work possible. Find out why our volunteers love being a part of NSDT.
"I can’t put into words what it has given to me except saying it has been a life line."
“I believe in the value of what they offer here for the community and that even inspired me to want to give something back. I now do a few hours a week voluntary support at the centre helping where I can in the community café.”
“Supporting the children’s out of school snack shack or the Wednesday free community meal. I think that is a wonderful thing to offer. Especially if people are struggling (as so many people are nowadays). It’s a really good thing. People can come sit down chat with other people for a few hours and get a free two course meal and sometimes even a bag to take a way. How wonderful is that. I love coming to the Brasshouse. I wish it was closer but I don’t mind the journey to come because I really believe in what they are doing for people.”
"I like volunteering for myself. I get a lot out of it. It makes me happy, getting to meet people."
“I started volunteering so I could support my mom as I am her informal carer to help and encourage her to socialise. I enjoy volunteering because I like seeing people happy, also just making the place brighter at Brasshouse with doing the gardening.”
“It’s good that it’s so local to us. Since I’ve been volunteering at Brasshouse I’ve learned new skills, so has mom. It’s helped with confidence to meet people and approach people for both of us. Brasshouse has been fantastic for both of us, mom even comes on her own now when I can’t make it. I never thought she would be confident to do that. It reassures me. I’ve learned so much about mom as we’ve been doing things together and that makes our relationship better, we are learning new things about each other all the time.”
"Volunteering is enriching in so many ways when you can effect change for others. It has no price tag but its value is priceless."
“Volunteering gives me pride that I have tried to support my community, where I live with my friends and neighbours. If nothing else I am proud of that because I believe in the people that live here I can see that we have so much potential and that’s what makes me just want to do what I do.”
It is rewarding to me in that way. It has also been rewarding in other fantastic ways that I could never have imagined too. Brasshouse mission statement states that it is the anchor at the heart of the community and I can truly say it has been my anchor is so many ways participating in activities or in my various volunteer roles Brasshouse has been a part of my life for so long, and my life has been part of north Smethwick community forever.
Volunteering FAQs
Volunteers are at the very heart of our organisation. With the invaluable help of volunteers we are able to deliver more projects and services for the community, and reach out to more people.
As a volunteer, you will be playing an important role in shaping our community to become a happier, healthier and safer place to live. At the same time you are able to build your confidence, develop your skills, gain experience to add into your CV, meet lots of new people and have fun!
We aim to make volunteering with us a great experience and do our best to ensure that everyone that volunteers for us feels valued, supported and understood, and proud to be part of our organisation.
Anyone can volunteer! We have many different volunteering opportunities to suit people with diverse range of skills, interests, experience and abilities. Roles range from volunteers helping to run our current projects to gardening and catering through to volunteering in administration .
We also provide placement and internship opportunities for students. Whether you are a young person looking to develop your skills, a retired person who has a lot to offer, a student or a professional, we would like to hear from you! Most of our volunteering roles are for people aged 16+ and over but we may have opportunities for younger volunteers during the school holidays.
We have a number of different ways to volunteer to suit your availability. Whether you have lots of time in your hands or are able to volunteer just a few hours a week, we want to hear from you.
Some of the roles we have may require you to commit to volunteer on a weekly basis, but we also have one-off opportunities to suit those who want to help but can only volunteer on a casual basis, or during the school holidays, or evenings.
By choosing to volunteer with us you will receive full induction and training into your role, a named mentor and regular one-to-one and/or group supervisions depending on your role.
We will do our best to provide on-going training related to your role and help you achieve your personal development goals. You will also be invited to our events and meetings.
See our current volunteering opportunities and register your interest by filling out a NSDT volunteer registration form. Please return your form by email to info@nsdt.org.uk. If you need help with filling out the form, please let us know.
Some roles will require a DBS check (Disclosure and Barring Service – criminal records check) which we will pay for, as we have a duty to protect the vulnerable people including children that we work with. If the role you wish to apply for requires a DBS check we will guide you through this process.
Yes. If you have any concerns and would like to talk to us about your specific needs, you can give us a call on 0121 555 5672, or drop us an email to volunteering@nsdt.org.uk, and we can give you more information about the roles that are accessible.
Volunteering will not affect your benefits and you can volunteer as many hours as you like. However you must inform your job coach or benefits adviser if you intend to start volunteering.
Yes. You can volunteer with us, even a refused asylum seeker waiting to go home, as we are a registered charity.
If you are interested in volunteering with us get in touch using our contact form. Once we have received your message we will be in touch with you to find out more about your interests and skills. We will also guide you through our application process and talk through any questions you may have.
Volunteer in
Your Local Pantry.
Want to get involved in volunteering? We have a range of volunteering opportunities from Pantry Assistants, Drivers and much more so please get in touch, we would love to hear from you. Training will be provided.
Want to know more about volunteering?
We’re always here to help answer any questions that you may have. If you want to find out more about volunteering or what we do at NSDT get in touch with us for a chat.
Disability confident employers
We are proud to be disability confident employers and are committed to working with local academic institutes to provide equal opportunities.
