Volunteering - Frequently asked questions

You don't need any special skills to volunteer at The Well but you must be able to uphold our values and be great at engaging with our customers. Some tasks will require volunteers to use IT or get involved in manual handling - we can tell you more about this during the recruitment process.

The first step is to fill in one of our forms which can be downloaded from the 'support us' section of our website, picked up from us in person or we can post one out to you. After that we'll be on touch about arranging an appointment for an informal face-to-face chat your application. During the conversation we will tell you more about the work of The Well, what volunteering opportunities might be available and find out a bit more about you. It also gives you a chance to ask any questions you may have. If we have a suitable vacancy we will arrange for you to have one or two 'trial' sessions so that we can assess your suitability and give you a better idea of the tasks involved. N.B. It's not possible to offer everyone a volunteering opportunity with us. If you'd like to make an informal enquiry before filling in a form just give us a call or drop us an email.

You will be trained 'on-the-job' by managers and experienced volunteers. You will have to comply with all relevant policies and procedures such as health and safety, safeguarding and, safe ways of working. Some roles require you to complete online training e.g. food hygiene.

Volunteering doesn't normally affect your entitlement to welfare benefits but we would advise you to declare it with the DWP/Benefits Agency to avoid any issues.

It doesn't cost you anything to volunteer. However, we will reimburse reasonable expenses (with prior permission) such as travel expenses in line with our policy. You will also get a drink on us from our cafe. If you work a full day you will get a free lunch.

We ask that, where possible, volunteers do at least one 4-hour session per week. If this isn't possible don't let that put you off as we will always try and be flexible where we can.

It varies. We may have vacancies in the food bank, shop and cafe but other times we might be fully staffed - check before applying. To read more about the roles, please click on these links:-