Volunteer Roles | The Children's Society

Find a volunteer role

Retail roles

By volunteering in our shops, you will become part of a committed team, learn valuable skills to stick on the CV and there's even opportunity to get nationally recognised qualifications such as an NVQ or BTEC.

Volunteering has opened so many doors

You don't need any previous experience to volunteer in our shops, but you should be supportive, polite, reliable, punctual and helpful to customers, other volunteers and staff.

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Volunteer in the community

Time: four talks per year
Skills: passionate, friendly, organised, able to travel around local area, happy to speak publicly

Volunteering as a speaker is the perfect way to share your experiences, encourage public awareness of the serious issues faced by children in the UK, and improve and strengthen your speaking skills.

No previous experience is necessary. We provide training on how to be a confident and effective speaker. When you feel ready, you will deliver talks to large audiences in community groups and at local businesses. You can also arrange your own talks to inspire groups and raise awareness of our work with children facing poverty, neglect or family crisis.

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Box Coordinators are responsible for coordinating a local network of collection boxes. You’ll inspire supporters in your area, who have a collection box in their home or workplace, to collect loose change for children and young people.

You'll collect donations from your amazing network once or twice a year, sending the donations back to us.This is a key role that raises money to support our work.

Setting up a network in your area is a fantastic way to get out, meet others, and raise awareness of what we do.

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If you’re looking for experience in events management or fundraising, this is an excellent opportunity to find out what it’s like to plan and manage an event yourself, from beginning to end.

As Volunteer Event Manager, you will be organising unique events in your local community to help raise donations and support for our mission. You have full ownership of the events that you put on so you can really demonstrate your creativity and event management skills.

For this role to be effective, we ask that you are able to commit to the role for a minimum of twelve months and that you aim to raise at least £500 in this year.

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We’re looking for Community Ambassadors to help us reach new audiences, raise awareness and generate income so we can reach our goal of overturning the damaging decline in children’s well-being.

Ambassadors will seek out opportunities to build relationships with community groups, organisations and businesses, raising awareness of our work and encouraging action through giving, campaigning and volunteering.

In addition to public speaking opportunities, you may attend events on our behalf, such as business networking meetings, fundraising events, community fetes, galas and more.

You will work closely with your local Children’s Society Relationship Manager for support and mapping out opportunities within your community.

Volunteer Campaign Champion

Whether helping care leavers be exempt from council tax or making sure families get support in a crisis, Campaign Champions have and continue to play a vital part in improving the lives of young people.

They meet local decision makers, shout about our campaigns and make sure young people's issues are being talked about.

As a Campaign Champion, you'll do whatever you can to elevate the voices of young people in your area. You might visit local decision makers or organise events to spread the word. You'll be provided with all the training, connections and support you need to help us make real change.

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Volunteer with children and young people

Time: Varied dependent on role (approx. two hours per week)
Skills: Good communication, empathetic, reliable

Want to work directly with young people? By volunteering in our services, you will build meaningful relationships and make a real difference to young lives.

For young people to get the most from these roles, we just ask you make a regular time commitment for a set period of time.

Find available children and young people roles

Office roles

Occasionally, our office-based teams will recruit volunteers. This is great way to gain work experience in an office environment and gives a good insight into how a charity operates behind the scenes.

These roles vary but you could be helping create training programmes, supporting our media team, or working with the volunteering team in getting more much-needed volunteers.

Find available volunteer office roles

Register interest in volunteering

If any of the roles above interest you then please fill in this form and let us know. We will review your information and get in touch.

Are you over 18 years old?

Yes, I am 18 or older

No, I am aged 14 - 17

Please note, you will need to be at least 14 years old to volunteer with The Children's Society.

What role are you interested in?

Which shop would you like to volunteer in?

We take our commitment to keep young people safe very seriously.

If you are applying for any role directly supporting children, we will ask you for references covering at least 5 years. You will be asked to complete a self-disclosure form, work history form and an Enhanced DBS check before you can start volunteering.

If your application is successful, you will do safeguarding training and a Volunteer Manager will provide you with additional support.

Find available roles with children and young people

Find available office volunteering roles

Is there anything specific that you'd like to get out of volunteering?

In which region are you applying to be a volunteer?

Younger Retail volunteers

We encourage applications for volunteering in our shops from anyone aged 14 or over. Unfortunately, we're not currently able to take applications from under 18s through our online form. If you're aged 14-17 and would like to find out more about volunteering, please find your nearest shop online and give them a ring or pop in to speak to the manager.

Young Speakers

Our Volunteer Speaker role is currently 18+ but we’re working on adapting this role for younger volunteers and we hope to be taking applications soon. We will update this page when this role is available.

First name

Last name

Mobile number

Email address

Supporter number (if known)

Address 1

Address 2

City

County

Postcode

Address

Address 2

City/Town

Region

Postcode

Country

Please enter your postcode to search for your address

Box group name (i.e. St John's Parish Church)

Box group address line 1

Box group address line 2

Box group postcode

Are you enquiring about taking over the role of box coordinator from a previous volunteer within your area?

Yes

No

If yes, please provide us with the full name of the previous coordinator

I'm happy to be contacted by email

Yes

No

When you apply for this role, we will ask for at least two references covering at least two years if you are over 18.

You will be invited to attend an informal interview or discussion about the role, either in person or on the phone.

If your application is successful, a Volunteer Manager will provide you with additional support.

When you apply for this role, you will be invited to attend an informal discussion about the role, either in person or on the phone.

Safeguarding

As a children’s charity, our top priority is the protection of the children, young people and adults with care and support needs who interact with us in any way and we take all necessary steps to safeguard them and promote their welfare.

This includes obtaining information about criminal convictions and, if the role is supporting young people in our services, a criminal records check before offering a volunteer role.

The information is processed and stored securely and confidentially in line with General Data Protection Regulations. It is used for assessing the volunteering application only and will not be shared with any third parties.

We assess every case individually in a fair, consistent and compliant way, and in line with Safer Recruitment principles. Applicants will not be prohibited from volunteering because of a conviction which does not indicate they may be a risk in the role for which they are applying

Become a volunteer

Find a volunteer role

Retail volunteer roles

Retail roles

Volunteer in the community

Volunteer Speaker

Box Coordinator

Volunteer Events Manager

Community Ambassador

become a campaign champion

Volunteer Campaign Champion

volunteering with children and young people

Volunteer with children and young people

Office roles

Register interest in volunteering

Safeguarding

Our commitment to safer recruitment

Related content

Campaign to help children

Volunteer to help children

Choose your challenge

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