Volunteer
Here at BSWA, our volunteers are an absolutely essential part of our service delivery. Women’s services were founded through the work of volunteers and we feel very lucky to be continuously supported by brilliant, clever, passionate and inspiring women who want to make a positive difference and give back a little of their time.
Volunteers for projects are recruited twice a year. Read on for more information about volunteering for a project.
If you are interested in volunteering for BSWA, please download our application form here
If you are a student interested in volunteering for BSWA, please download our student application form here
Volunteers for our charity shop are recruited on an ad hoc basis so please follow the link for more information about Shop Volunteers
‘I really enjoyed the training we went on – it challenged me a lot and showed me a completely different perspective on things. By the time I started in my role, I felt really well prepared for it as the training was so comprehensive. It was also great to be in a space surrounded by other women who were just as interested in the topics as I was. I learnt lots from them as well as the trainers."
One of our volunteers
Why volunteer for Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid?
Our volunteers support us in a whole range of ways. Just some of the things they do for us includes:
- Answering calls on our Helpline, providing callers with practical and emotional support
- Sorting donations out and keeping our donations room in some semblance of order
- Supporting group work projects so women have a safe, welcoming and comfortable environment to share their thoughts and feelings and make new friends and connections
- Sharing their artistic skills in creative sessions in refuge
- Supporting our children’s workers to provide fun activities for children living in refuge
- Providing admin support to our teams of support workers, enabling them to spend more time focussing on directly supporting women
- Providing crèche support so woman can attend important appointments such as court hearings
- Teaching women new skills, like how to budget and cook tasty meals for themselves
- Supporting our Schools Project to deliver sessions to children and young people on positive friendships and relationships
- Attending events to share with others the type of work we do and how they can support us
- Making endless rounds of tea and toast for women waiting to hear from the council about what safe accommodation they will be going to
- And so, so much more….
Volunteers are recruited twice a year. All prospective volunteers who submit a successful application are invited to attend eight sessions of training (four hours, once a week) which will help to explain more about the way we work with women and some of the issues the women and children we support experience. Volunteers are then interviewed and placed into appropriate projects.
If you would like to sign up to be invited to our next Information Morning so you can find out more, please express your interest by e-mailing volunteering@bswaid.org
