Voluntary Action South West Surrey

Zero Carbon Guildford is a charity set up to enable local community action to tackle the climate and ecological crisis and associated social issues.

Zero Carbon Guildford operates a Community Hub, in the centre of Guildford, to enable the community to come together to tackle these issues.  

The Hub includes a café, houses our many projects  and showcases ways local people can make changes to help Guildford's journey towards a zero-carbon future. 

Care for Guildford - we are a local award winning charity enabling people live independently with dignity. Through our of team of volunteers we

• provide a reliable, caring service taking people to and from essential medical appointments who would otherwise struggle. Our clients often have no-one else to call on, cannot manage public transport or are unable to afford taxis. Many clients have complex health conditions and struggle to attend the appointments they desperately need without our help.

• offer a shopping service that also provides friendly social contact to those living alone, allowing our clients to stay independent and remain in their home.

We are very flexible, no firm commitment is required, allowing us to work around your availability, however limited that maybe be.

If you can offer a friendly face, often at a difficult time in a client’s life - why not consider joining our amazing volunteer team. We promise you will make a real difference to our clients lives.

If any of the roles below are of interest, we would love to hear from you.

Web site: Care for Guildford                           

Email: volunteer@careforguildford.org.uk

Every day, Anthony Nolan saves the lives of people with a blood cancer or blood disorder. We do this by matching incredible individuals willing to donate their stem cells to people who desperately need a lifesaving transplant. We also carry out cutting edge scientific research, fund specialist post-transplant nurses and support patients and their families through the transplant process and beyond. We won’t stop until we save the lives of everyone who needs a stem cell transplant. 

Our mission is to drive the transformation of lung health. We strive for a world where lung health is prioritised through better understanding, research, treatment and support.

Therefore we fund cutting-edge research, and provide advice and support for the 12 million people who will get a lung condition during their lifetime.

We also campaign for clean air and better NHS diagnosis and treatment. 

We are one Parish with welcoming and inclusive Churches.
Our vision is for the growth of God's Kingdom so we aim to:

  Grow in Spiritual Maturity
  Grow in Numbers
  Grow Younger
  Grow in Community Engagement 

Barnardo's protects, supports and nurtures the UK's most vulnerable children. Barnardo's helps bring out the best in children – no matter who they are or what they have been through. Our volunteers help make this happen.

The Brigitte Trust is a Queen's Award registered charity offering a free service of emotional support and practical help.  The service is offered face-to-face in the home supporting people and their carers when a life-threatening illness such as Cancer or Motor Neurone Disease has been diagnosed.The Brigitte Trust is a trusted partner of Surrey County Council and over 400 referrals are received every year throughout Surrey.  More volunteers are needed now to support people who have received a life-limiting diagnosis.

About the British Red Cross

The British Red Cross helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. We are part of a global voluntary network, responding to conflicts, natural disasters and individual emergencies.

We enable vulnerable people in theUKand abroad to prepare for and withstand emergencies in their own communities. And when the crisis is over, we help them to recover and move on with their lives.

The British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) is a voluntary membership-based, pro-public transport improvement association with several of its projects having a nationwide positive benefit and impact. Membership is open to all.

Broadband for Surrey Hills (B4SH) is a not-for-profit community internet service provider. Our purpose is to bring reliable, hyperfast fibre broadband to hard to reach, rural, communities in the Surrey Hills.

The detection work of Cancer Testing South is driven by a passion to find early indications of prostate cancer and also lead to the uncovering of other frequently overlooked cancer through both testing with a simple blood test and by promoting awareness. We aim to learn educate and use knowledge, to reduce death from prostate and other cancers that regularly respond to early intervention.

We will change the lives of disabled people using expertly trained dogs to improve physical, emotional and social wellbeing. 

Community Angels are trained befrienders who offer six months of weekly face-to-face support to adults of all ages in Guildford borough struggling with loneliness and/or social isolation. 

If you have a couple of free hours a week and enjoy listening and getting to know people, we'd love to hear from you. We provide training to get started (2 x 3 hours sessions), match you carefully with someone to befriend and provide ongoing support while you are volunteering with us.

Hear what our volunteers say on https://youtu.be/5MAb_UVTcc0

Community Angels is one of three projects run by Guildford Town Centre Chaplaincy.

Crossroads Care Surrey is an established charity of over 30 years, offering a range of support services to carers and the people for whom they care.  We are committed to supporting people at an earlier stage in their care journey and recognise there can be a considerable length of time between a person needing some care and support periodically and them needing full time, round-the-clock care.

Community Support Volunteers will support Crossroads Care Surrey by providing the delivery of essential shopping for cared for people and carers that are struggling with the weekly shop or collecting prescriptions. With access to your own vehicle, you will receive requests made by the Community Support Co-ordinator to complete a shopping trip to help the people Crossroads Care Surrey support in your community.  

Befriending Volunteers will support befriending service to the people we support, enabling them to benefit from knowing there is someone there to listen, understand, be their friend and check in on their wellbeing. Calls could last anything from 10 minutes to half an hour and you will need to ensure that you can listen with understanding and patience and then respond appropriately.

Our Companion Volunteers provide visits upwards of 1 and a half hours.  Companionship visits are generally provided by our team of volunteers and are geared up towards people in the early stages of their caring journey, and their loved ones who do not – at this stage – require round-the-clock or specialist support.

We're also looking for new Trustee's to join us now, so if you're interested in supporting us in leading the development of respite services for carers in Surrey, please enquire through our website www.crossroadscaresurrey.org.uk

We are also always looking for people that are interested in other volunteering roles, including by offering support in care or club settings, in the community or in the head office.

If you are interested in becoming part of our Surrey wide team and being involved in providing support to your community, please email us at enquiries@crossroadscaresurrey.org.uk to request a volunteer pack.

We'd love to hear from you... if you have a good understanding of what it's like to be a carer and are looking to give something back through volunteering.

To offer lifts to elderly residents of Farncombe and Binscombe, or others without their own transport or convenient access to public services. Lifts will typically be to all types of  medical appointments..

Clients make modest voluntary contributions towards the cost of the driver's car expenses..

Drivers offer a personal service using their own vehicles. Clients make requests via a mobile number, which is manned on weekdays from 10 to 12 noon, with a message facility

Our mission is to support older people living in Farnham to prevent loneliness and isolation.

Sea Cadet units are managed and run by committed volunteers.

The Unit Management Team (UMT) are the unit’s trustees, headed by the Unit Chairperson (UC).

The UMT is responsible for the running of the unit at a strategic and management level.

Footsteps | Homeless Support | Guildford | Sunday Evenings

Are you able to help?

Footsteps have been helping homeless, disadvantaged and lonely members of our community for over 30 years.

Every Sunday we open the Beverley Hall centre in Guildford from 4.30pm. We provide free food, and advice & support should people need it. We are always on the lookout for volunteers so please get in touch to find out more.

www.footsteps.org.uk | chair@footsteps.org.uk

Our Purpose: To provide life-changing services for the independence of people living with sight loss and their friends and family.

Our Ambition: A future where every person with sight loss has the confidence and support to live their lives to the fullest.

Our Behaviours:

We are

Person-centred

Experts

Optimistic

so we can:

Partner

Lead by example

Engage

Guildford Environment Forum are a Surrey based charity with a 25 year long history. We work to make Guildford (and the world beyond) a more sustainable place by educating, informing, cutting energy use, reducing ecological footprints, helping wildlife and tackling climate change. We work on local government climate Change committees, and run various hands-on projects that generate action on the environment within our local community. 

Guildford Twinning Association is a voluntary group which supports the town twinning of Guildford with the beautiful city of Freiburg in Southwest Germany. We promote international friendship, understanding and co-operation. We do this by:

• helping people in both towns to learn about each other and make friends
• supporting/managing exchanges: schools, sport, arts, music, social
• helping people in both towns to work together
• running events: social, arts, educational, fund-raising

See our website at guildfordtwinning.uk

Our Mission:

To offer inclusive activities which support the educational, training, employment, cultural and recreational needs of the local community.

Our values:

To offer inclusive activities which support the educational, training, employment, cultural and recreational needs of the local community.

Our aim is to promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials, as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities.

The method of achieving the aim of the association is by providing an enjoyable and attractive scheme of progressive training, based on the scout promise and law and guided by adult leadership and to have loads of FUN doing it!

Scouting exists to actively engage and support young people in their personal development, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society.

Headway Surrey supports people with acquired brain injuries and their families and promotes understanding of the implications of acquired brain injury throughout Surrey.

At this very early stage of the project Homes for Farnham consists of a small group of people, who care about Farnham, the future of the town and the people in it. As individuals we are rooted in the Farnham community and have set up Homes for Farnham as a not-for-profit voluntary organisation for local people to learn about Community-Led Housing and how this new approach is able to build affordable homes. We’ve been inspired by other community housing groups elsewhere who have successfully completed projects providing affordable homes fully accountable to local communities. We are developing Homes for Farnham as a local housing hub to which anyone living or working in the Farnham district who faces housing issues is invited to join and share their experience

Parents Supporting Other Parents - a simple idea that really works!

Home-Start Guildford has been supporting local families across the Guildford Borough for over 25 years. 

We're a non-judgemental organisations that helps any parent who is struggling, for any reason. Some of those reasons may include; multiple births, mental health, an abusive partner, isolation, mental or physical handicap, or the pressure that loss of employment brings to a family.

What we do

Our charity provides a preventative service that aims to support families who are struggling by offering regular volunteer support to parents with at least one child under the age of 5, usually referred to us by Health Visitors.

We provide one-to-one support for parents:
Our volunteers visit the family’s home for a couple of hours every week.  They tailor-make their support to the needs of the parents and children. Volunteers are very committed and will keep visiting until the youngest child turns five or starts school, or until the parents feel they can stand on their own two feet.  Parents and volunteers often develop a deeply trusting relationship which can lead to powerful change within the family.

We also run two family groups for referred families, one in the Pirbright Community Centre and the other in the Guildford Family Group, Hazel Avenue.

Our values

• We offer families choice
• We work in partnership - with each other, with families and with other agencies,
• We work in a spirit of openness, encouragement and enjoyment
• We are flexible and responsive to the needs of families.

Volunteering Opportunities 

There are several ways that you can help in a voluntary capacity:

• by supporting a family as a home-visiting volunteer
• by helping at one of our Family Groups
• by joining the Trustee Board
• by becoming a Friend of Home-Start Guildford

Please see the volunteer roles listed for more detail.

Our Mission

Over the next five years and beyond, our mission is to close the gap in end of life care. Between now and 2028 we'll design and deliver services providing the best possible care and support to people living with any terminal illness, and those close to them. And we'll play a leading role in shaping the end of life system across the UK; driving research, influencing public policy, campaigning for change, and fighting for better services – so everyone has access to the end of life care and support they need.

Helping families of seriously ill children to keep moving forward

From hospital to home and beyond, we’ll be with you and your family every step of the way.

Our Vision

A world free from MND

Our Mission

We improve care and support for people with MND, their families and carers.

We fund and promote research that leads to new understanding and treatments, and brings us closer to a cure for MND.

We campaign and raise awareness so the needs of people with MND and everyone who cares for them are recognised and addressed by wider society.

The National Trust - Our values and behaviours.

Our purpose is to look after special places, for ever, for everyone. Growing the nation's love of special places is how we do that, putting the relationship between people and places at the heart of what we do.

Our core purpose remains the same as it has been for 125 years, to bring nature, beauty and history into the lives of as many people as possible.

Our values tell us how to do this, as they guide us in our choices and influence our behaviour. 

Love people and places 

Welcome everyone

Think now and forever

Make it happen!

The New Ashgate Gallery Trust is a charity specialising in the curation and promotion of arts and craft. Established in 1959, NAG has supported emerging artists and encouraged participation in community through free exhibitions, craft workshops and professional practice seminars.

We curate more than 20 annual exhibitions with some of the best artists working on painting, print, ceramics, jewellery, textiles, glass and wood.  

Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People (QEF) is a disability charity based in Surrey, with national reach. With more than 85 years’ experience of developing innovative services which support almost 10,000 disabled people a year to achieve their potential and increase their independence.

QEF works with children and adults with physical and learning disabilities or acquired brain injuries. They offer a wide range of expert services, whether it’s providing expert neuro rehabilitation to rebuild a life affected by brain injury, providing assistive equipment and specialist advice to increase independent mobility, or acquiring the skills to drive a specially adapted car.

We support the collective power of young people to solve the world's greatest challenges. 

Receive a warm welcome at Rosamund Guildford Community Garden, where a vibrant community of volunteers comes together. Our mission is to create a nurturing natural space, inviting both novice and passionate gardeners to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors and wildlife.

We grow produce in tune with nature, using no-dig methods, slow natural enrichment and non-mechanisation. The Garden has many environmental features including a Roundhouse crafted through traditional methods, a pond fed by rainwater, two polytunnels, beds for growing, wildlife havens and a diverse orchard with a variety of trees.

Our volunteers can visit on a flexible basis and there are different ongoing projects that might appeal. Once signed up, our doors are open for volunteers to explore anytime, and we host regular volunteer groups on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Additionally, join us for our monthly 'big job' days over the weekends.

The Royal Air Forces Association (or RAF Association), is a membership organisation and registered charity that provides welfare support to the RAF Family.

The RAF Family includes all serving and ex-serving personnel and their dependants. To be eligible for welfare support, for both themselves and those who depend upon them, service personnel need to have served a minimum of one day in the RAF.

The Association exists in the recognition that RAF personnel and their immediate families dedicate their lives to their country, and to ensure that such a sacrifice does not result in suffering, poverty or loneliness.

Whether it’s an injured airman fighting to get back on his feet, a young child missing their parent away on overseas operations, or a World War II veteran needing a shoulder to lean on, we are here to help all generations of RAF Service personnel and their families.

We are working to deliver exceptional care in a welcoming and safe environment for patients at Royal Surrey Hospital.

From providing state of the art equipment and redeveloping wards, to investing in staff development and funding innovative research, our patients are at the heart of everything we do.

Working collaboratively with medical and support staff, we fund projects that make the biggest impact on the 260,000 people we treat each year – from babies, to children and young adults, to older people.

The charitable objectives of the RSPCA are to promote kindness and prevent or suppress cruelty to animals by all lawful means.

The branch promotes animal welfare in the local area primarily through veterinary assistance, neutering and re-homing. We run a voucher scheme which assists local people with veterinary bills for treatment and neutering. It also helps to control dog and cat populations, thereby promoting responsible pet ownership.

The branch assists the RSPCA animal centres, mainly Millbrook and South Godstone, with re-homing unwanted and abused animals by home-visiting.  We also pay for veterinary treatment of stray animals and wildlife attended to by the Inspectorate in our branch area.

The RSPCA provides advice for owners on animal care. It also helps animals brought to us for rehoming because their owners are unable or unwilling to keep them. Ill treated or injured animals are cared for by the Society. The public benefits from knowing that we can intervene to assist animals in need.

We have a website to raise awareness of the activities of the branch and to help members get more involved. We provide volunteering opportunities for those who wish to support our work, including trusteeship, fundraising and home visiting. This benefits local people and companies by providing the possibility of doing work which is compassionate and rewarding.

We also have to fundraise to enable us to continue with our charitable work. The RSPCA receives no government or lottery funding.

Sensory Services by Sight for Surrey is an inclusive organisation dedicated to enabling and empowering people who are Deaf, hard of hearing, blind, partially sighted and deafblind. We champion independence, where people thrive in their communities and achieve their aspirations.

This scheme provides for an adult to be present when a juvenile or vulnerable adult is being interviewed in custody, when a parent or other representative is not available. The volunteers are all trained and ready to attend the police station at any time. This scheme is so successful that it has been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards and is now the only provider of this service to Surrey. The scheme is funded through Surrey Youth Justice Team and Surrey County Council's Mental Health Team.

The aim of the Surrey Coalition is to campaign and promote the rights of disabled people to have equality of opportunity and to live independently.

The Surrey Hills Society is an independent charity formed 15 years ago.  It promotes the positive enjoyment and care of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is in the course of being rebranded as one of the UK’s National Landscapes. We encourage those who live, work in, or visit the area to explore and learn about the special qualities and distinctiveness of the area.  The Society also uses its extensive network to actively promote the conservation and enjoyment of the Surrey Hills.

In June 2019 the Society was presented with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service which is the highest award for volunteer groups to recognise outstanding work done in their communities and is the equivalent of an MBE for voluntary organisations.

Our mission is summarised by four words: Conserve, Inspire, Educate and Enjoy.

For further information visit our website.

Our vision is that everyone who becomes a parent feels confident, connected, and safe because we believe parents help build the foundations of the future.

Every year we support over 250,000 parents across the UK and Channel Islands on their unique journeys through pregnancy, birth, infant feeding, and early parenthood.

We are the charity that supports people as they become parents.

To tackle disadvantage, social exclusion and hardship in local communities. To reach out to families to equip them with the skills to improve their economic situation, to reduce social isolation and break the cycle of deprivation. 

The Treloar Trust provides education, care, therapy, medical support and independence training to young people with physical disabilities from all over the UK and overseas. Our aim is to prepare these young people for adult life, giving them the confidence and skills to achieve their full potential.

Our Vision

A world where physically disabled young people take control of their lives and achieve their aspirations

Our Mission

To enable physically disabled young people to achieve their aspirations by:

• Providing personalised learning, therapy and care
• Supporting transition into adulthood
• Promoting independence and inclusion

Our Values

We are Inclusive

Everyone – regardless of physical ability, where they live or socioeconomic background – should have the opportunity to take part in life. We treat our Beneficiaries with the same dignity as their non-disabled peers and work to remove barriers in their way.

Our students and Beneficiaries are always at the centre of everything we do. Before we make decisions, we ask, “How will our students and Beneficiaries benefit from this?”

We act with Integrity and Respect

Physically disabled young people should be free to direct their own lives. We listen to young people’s views and support them to make age-appropriate choices about their daily life and informed choices about their future.

We celebrate and promote diversity, value and support each other, and treat everyone with mutual respect. We support a culture of openness, honesty and transparency, where the safeguarding of our students and wellbeing of our staff is paramount.

We strive for Excellence

Physically disabled young people and their families deserve outstanding care and support. We work to make sure all our services are excellent and actively challenge each other to ensure continuous quality improvement.

We continually innovate to ensure that our Beneficiaries receive the cutting-edge, excellent support they deserve.

From our beautiful and inspiring setting of Watts Gallery - Artists Village, we welcome everyone to connect with the art and ideas of our founders George and Mary Watts. By caring for the collections and our environment, we advocate for the power, impact and relevance of art - onsite, online, with our community and via our international network of artists’ studio museums. Our dynamic and multisensory programme of exploring, looking and making, takes you out of the everyday, into new encounters that invite you to view life through a different lens.

West Horsley Place is a Grade I listed mediaeval manor house and estate of great beauty and historic significance. The manor house dates from 1425, though there has been a building on site since Saxon times. Our recent work to conserve and maintain the house has made our principal rooms safe and comfortable for public access, but the house remains on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register.  

The West Horsley Place Trust aims to bring the house, gardens, 380-acre estate and eight Grade II listed outbuildings back into good repair and to improve people's wellbeing through art, culture, heritage & nature.

We will give people freedom to explore and discover, to create stories and become part of ours. 

VISION

• To bring about a quiet revolution in the way an historic house and estate is managed
• To be a place that improves people’s wellbeing through culture, heritage and nature

MISSION

• To be sustainable, financially, environmentally and socially
• To be a catalyst for creativity
• To conserve the listed buildings in our care so that they are no longer on the Historic England ‘at risk’ register
• To provide learning and engagement opportunities in culture, heritage and nature
• To broaden our audience by being welcoming, inclusive and accessible
• To enhance the natural landscape through increasing biodiversity and habitat connectivity

Whitmore Vale Housing Association offers services to people with learning disabilities and we work alongside them to achieve the most out of their life. Through supported living and residential care we can meet a wide range of needs, supporting people with a mild learning disability, to those who have profound and complex disabilities.