Noah's Ark Children's Hospice

Living with a child’s diagnosis can place considerable strain on the whole family and in recognition of this the Home Support Volunteer programme was established in 2008 to help families cope with the demands of providing constant care. Home Support Volunteers provide a range of practical and social support to the families of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions in the community. 

Noah’s Ark takes their responsibility for safeguarding the wellbeing of children seriously. This role is subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Application. 2 references are also required.

Becoming a Home Support Volunteer is a serious commitment but it provides a rewarding opportunity to directly support children with life-limiting/ life threatening conditions and their families.

The needs of individual families will differ, but each Home Support role will be agreed in advance between the family, Noah’s Ark, and the volunteer.

What the role involves: Depending on the member of the family being supported, a Home Support Volunteer role could involve:

Siblings

• Playing together, sharing hobbies or activities
• Helping with homework or reading
• Going on outings to the local community

Noah’s Ark Children

• Playing together, sharing hobbies
• Doing sensory or developmental play activities
• Helping with homework or reading

Parents/Whole Family

• Supporting them with outings in the community
• Helping with light housework chores such as laundry & ironing
• Driving the family to medical appointments
• Gardening & mowing the lawn

Play and Therapies support

• Structured and guided play activities to Noah’s Ark or their siblings.
• A step-down service from the Play/Therapies team to continue providing children with a safe space to continue developing social, communication or play skills.
• Play/therapies volunteers receive ongoing support from their assigned Play/Therapies team member (Music, Drama or Play).

As well as offering regular support for families, we often receive one-off requests for help in the home: from packing boxes for a house move, to decorating for Christmas, cleaning a home for a child to return from hospital or painting a garden fence. Our Home Support Volunteers sign up to support families on an ad hoc basis when needed most.

PLEASE NOTE: You will not have responsibility for a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition and will not be expected to undertake any personal care or administer medication.

Qualities/ experience/ skills needed:

• Experience of working with children, young people or families is desirable but not essential. We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds with all sorts of skills.
• Ability to work well with others and able to follow instructions and be part of a team
• Understanding of confidentiality
• A good understanding of the role and of Noah’s Ark’s expectations of volunteers
• Good communication skills
• Reliability, commitment and engagement
• Initiative and problem-solving skills
• A good level of self-awareness

Opportunities of the role:

• Gain rewarding experience of working directly with children, young people and their families
• Develop communication sensitivity skills with families in challenging circumstances
• Training and support to build new skills
• You are entitled to claim travelling expenses at the current mileage rate

Interviews, training and assessment process: At Noah’s Ark we value volunteer support, but we are also aware that not all roles are suitable for everyone.  The interview and training process is in place to ensure that the Noah’s Ark staff get to know more about you, to ensure that you are given the correct training for the role and so that you can find out if this is a role you would like to undertake.  The training process is as follows:

• Volunteer Information Session: All potential volunteers have to attend one of these sessions before they are able to get involved in any capacity.
• Informal Interview: This will take place at the Noah’s Ark Office at a mutually agreeable time.
• Core Module (full day): Held on a Saturday or a Sunday, training topics include Confidentiality and Boundaries, giving excellent customer service, grief loss and bereavement and infection control. 
• Home Module Training (3 hours): A weekday evening or weekend morning session; preparing volunteers for the specific requirements of the Home Support Volunteer role. This training takes place immediately after the Core Module.
• Safeguarding Training (3 hours): A weekday evening or weekend morning session, depending on the schedule, this helps to ensure the safety of our service.

Training programmes are run at regular intervals throughout the year.

To provide safe and reliable transport for families, under the guidance and support of the Home Support Volunteer Manager.

Responding to one-off requests to and from medical appointments, health and social care appointments and local community groups as required.

Supporting the Family Activities Team with transport to and from Noah’s Ark events in the community and in The Ark.

If you love driving and want to use your skills for a great cause, this is the role for you!

Noah’s Ark takes their responsibility for safeguarding the wellbeing of children seriously. This role is subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Application. 2 references are also required.

Qualities/ experience/ skills needed:

• Ability to work well with others and able to follow instructions and be part of a team
• Friendly and outgoing with a good sense of humour
• Understanding of confidentiality
• A good understanding of the role and of Noah’s Ark’s expectations of volunteers
• Good communication skills
• Reliability, commitment and engagement
• Initiative and problem-solving skills
• A good level of self-awareness
• Experience of working with children, young people or families is desirable but not essential. We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds with all sorts of skills

Interviews, training and assessment process: At Noah’s Ark we value volunteer support, but we are also aware that not all roles are suitable for everyone.  The interview and training process is in place to ensure that the Noah’s Ark staff get to know more about you, to ensure that you are given the correct training for the role and so that you can find out if this is a role you would like to undertake.  The training process is as follows:

• Volunteer Information Session: All potential volunteers have to attend one of these sessions before they are able to support Noah’s Ark in any capacity. They are held monthly on weekday evenings or Saturday mornings.
• Interview: This will take place at the Noah’s Ark Office at a mutually agreeable time.
• Core Training (full day): Held on a Saturday or a Sunday, training topics include Confidentiality and Boundaries, giving excellent customer service, grief loss and bereavement and infection control. 
• Safeguarding Training (3 hours): Held on weekday evening, depending on the schedule, essential for ensuring the safety of our service.

PLEASE NOTE: Proof of some driving documents (e.g. MOT, insurance etc.) have to be renewed every year.

Additional training programmes are run at regular intervals throughout the year.

As an Ambassador, you will be proactively raising awareness across our catchment area to local community groups and businesses, helping us to reach more children and families who need our support and to raise the income needed to expand our services.

The main aim of this role is to represent Noah’s Ark at various community engagements and events across the boroughs, this may include:

• Giving talks and presentations about Noah’s Ark.
• Representing Noah’s Ark at third party events and in the community.
• Leading tours of The Ark and grounds.
• Networking with our Charity of The Year partners and building strong relationships.
• Overseeing Noah’s Ark stalls at Charity of the Year partnership events.
• Collecting cheques and collection boxes from local community groups.

Noah’s Ark takes their responsibility for safeguarding the wellbeing of children seriously. This role is subject to two references.

Qualities/ experience/ skills needed:

• Confident and articulate speaker
• Passionate about the work of Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice
• Friendly, professional and enthusiastic individual with good communication skills
• Proactive in seeking networking opportunities
• Ability to work on own initiative
• A commitment to abiding by all data protection and confidentiality policies within Noah’s Ark as well as the regulations of outside companies
• Access to a vehicle is desirable

Opportunities of the role:

• Develop public speaking skills
• Gain experience of fundraising, events and the charity sector
• Learn about your local community

Interviews, training and assessment process:

At Noah’s Ark, we value volunteer support, but we are also aware that not all roles are suitable for everyone.  The interview and training process is in place to ensure that the Noah’s Ark staff get to know more about you, that you are given the correct training for the role and that you can find out if this is a role you would like to undertake.  The training process is as follows:

• Attend a Volunteer Information Session: all potential volunteers have to attend one of these sessions before they are able to get involved in any capacity
• Attend an Informal Interview (in person or via Zoom): this will ensure that you are happy and well matched to the specific role
• Attend Ambassador Training: this training consists of 1 session which will cover core training, key messaging and scenarios 
• Shadow an Ambassador opportunity led by a Noah’s Ark member of staff

Lead an ambassador opportunity shadowed by a Noah’s Ark staff member

Kitchen volunteers support our catering manager with the day-to-day running of the hospice kitchen.

Main tasks/activities: Assisting the Catering Manager in preparing, cooking, and serving food and refreshments to families, staff, other volunteers, and visitors to The Ark.

• food preparation
• serving at the front counter
• taking money
• restocking fridge and supplies
• cleaning and tidying up

Qualities/experience/skills needed:

• a willingness and ability to stand for long periods of time
• you must enjoy interacting with children and be happy to roll your sleeves up and help with a variety of activities, some of which are more 'fun' than others
• experience of working with children, young people or families is desirable but not essential
• good communication skills and ability to work well with other
• reliability, commitment and engagement 
• patience and understanding, helpful, sensitive and compassionate manner is paramount
• a good level of self-awareness

We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds with all sorts of skills.

Opportunities of the role

• gain experience of working with children
• gain experience working with people with disabilites
• build social skills through a variety of interactions
• develop abilities to work as part of a team

Interviews, training and assessment process: At Noah’s Ark we value volunteer support, but we are also aware that not all roles are suitable for everyone.  The interview and training process is in place to ensure that the Noah’s Ark staff get to know more about you, to ensure that you are given the correct training for the role and so that you can find out if this is a role you would like to undertake.  The training process is as follows:

• Volunteer Information Session: All potential volunteers have to attend one of these sessions before they are able to support Noah’s Ark in any capacity. They are held monthly on weekday evenings or Saturday mornings.
• Interview: This will take place at the Noah’s Ark Office at a mutually agreeable time.
• Core Training (3 hours): Training topics include Confidentiality and Boundaries, giving excellent customer service, grief loss and bereavement and infection control. Held on different days, some daytimes and some evenings.
• Safeguarding Training (2 ½ hours): 1 weekday / weekend morning or 1 evening, depending on the schedule, essential for ensuring the safety of our service.
• Level 2 Food Safety & Hygiene – which is an online training session, arranged by Noah’s Ark.

We are looking for an enthusiastic volunteer to support the Community and Individual Giving team with day-to-day administration - including supporting with a range of third party fundraising requests.

Noah’s Ark takes their responsibility for safeguarding the wellbeing of children seriously. This role is subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Application. 2 references are also required.

Opportunities of the role:

• Gain experience working in an office environment
• Build confidence to complete tasks independently
• Develop abilities to work as part of a team

Main activities/tasks:

• Support with fundraising administration including working on Noah’s Ark fundraising database, Beacon
• Contact ‘Your Hospice Lottery’ winners
• Keep an inventory of fundraising materials and organise re-stock where necessary
• Support the wider fundraising team with administration for events and activities
• Count cash donations in line with our cash handling policy
• Work within legal and charity guidelines
• Manage and work within Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice administrative and IT systems guidelines

Qualities/experience/skills needed: 

• Passion for Noah’s Ark and the work we do
• Good communication skills, including a friendly and professional telephone manner
• Previous experience of working in admin or within an office environment
• Comfortable with computers and/or willing to learn new systems; a good understanding of Microsoft Office is desirable
• Ability to plan your tasks in an effective manner
• Good listening skills including the ability to identify and relay key information accurately 
• Flexible and have a positive attitude; ability and desire to work effectively with others as one team
• Detail-oriented
• A commitment to abiding by all data protection and confidentiality policies within Noah’s Ark

Please do not worry if you do not have all of the above. We really value the different skills and contacts applicants may bring to this role.

Interviews, training and assessment process: At Noah’s Ark we value volunteer support, but we are also aware that not all roles are suitable for everyone. The interview and training process is in place to ensure that the Noah’s Ark staff get to know more about you, to ensure that you are given the correct training for the role and so that you can find out if this is a role you would like to undertake. The training process is as follows:

• Volunteer Information Session: All potential volunteers have to attend one of these sessions before they are able to get involved in any capacity.

• Informal interview: This will take place at the Noah’s Ark Office at a mutually agreeable time.

• Core Module (full day): Held on a Saturday or a Sunday, training topics include Confidentiality and Boundaries, giving excellent customer service, grief loss and bereavement and infection control.

• Safeguarding Module (3 hours): held on a weekday evening, depending on the schedule, essential for ensuring the safety of our service.

• 1:1 Training and induction during the first shift

Additional training programmes are run at regular intervals throughout the year.

We are looking to develop a small team of volunteer photographers to attend various events, in order to provide us with images which can then be used to raise awareness of the work we do and the support we provide.

 The photography team will also allow us to capture precious memories of the babies, children and young people that we support – something that their families will cherish forever. 
Dependent on the event, the volunteer photographer will work in association with the Marketing and Communications, Fundraising and the Care teams. The events include our quarterly family days and monthly parent groups, as well as fundraising events such as golf days and gala dinners. 
This role will allow you to develop your experience, skills and photography portfolio whilst making a real difference to the lives of babies, children and young people who are seriously unwell. 
The photographs will become part of our image library. Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice will own the copyright of the photos.
Noah’s Ark takes their responsibility for safeguarding the wellbeing of children seriously. This role is subject to an Enhanced DBS check and two references.

Main activities/tasks:

• Take photographs at various events as arranged with Noah’s Ark
• Edit the images as necessary, send the photographs back to Noah’s Ark within 48 hours via wetransfer and deleting the photographs from own devices

Qualities/ experience/ skills needed:

• Provide an up to date portfolio of your work
• Own your own digital DSLR camera
• •    Be able to take good quality, high resolution photographs
  •    Be able to interact with a wide variety of people
  •    Have experience of photographing people/events
  •    Have experience of editing digital images
  •    Maintain sensitivity, confidentiality and discretion at all times
  •    Be able to work as part of a team and independently
  •    Maintain a professional approach 
  •    Have good communication skills and be sensitive to the situation and feelings of other people

Interviews, training and assessment process:
At Noah’s Ark, we value volunteer support, but we are also aware that not all roles are suitable for everyone.  The interview and training process is in place to ensure that the Noah’s Ark staff get to know more about you, that you are given the correct training for the role and that you can find out if this is a role you would like to undertake.  The training process is as follows:
•    Volunteer Information Session: All potential volunteers have to attend one of these sessions before they are able to support Noah’s Ark in any capacity. They are held monthly on weekday evenings or Saturday mornings.
•    Interview: This will take place at the Noah’s Ark Office at a mutually agreeable time.
•    Core Training (full day): Saturday or Sunday, training topics include Confidentiality and Boundaries, giving excellent customer service, grief loss and bereavement and infection control. 
•    Safeguarding Training (3 hours): 1 weekday evening - essential for ensuring the safety of our service.
•    Brand training (2 hours) 

We are looking to develop a small team of volunteer videographers to attend various events, in order to provide us with video footage which can then be used to raise awareness of the work we do and the support we provide.

Noah’s Ark takes their responsibility for safeguarding the wellbeing of children seriously. This role is subject to an Enhanced DBS and two references.

The videography team will also allow us to capture precious memories of the babies, children and young people that we support – something that their families will cherish forever.
The volunteer videographer will work in association with the Marketing and Communications, Fundraising and the Care teams. The events include our quarterly family days and monthly parent groups, as well as fundraising events such as golf days and gala dinners. 
This role will allow you to develop your experience, skills and portfolio whilst making a real difference to the lives of babies, children and young people who are seriously unwell. 
The footage will become part of our media library. Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice will own the copyright of the videos.

Main activities/tasks:
•    Capture footage at various events as arranged with Noah’s Ark
•    Edit the footage if necessary, sending back to Noah’s Ark within 48 hours via wetransfer and deleting the footage from own devices

Qualities/ experience/ skills needed:

• Provide examples of recent work
• Own your own camera
• Be able to take good quality, high resolution footage
• Be able to interact with a wide variety of people
• Have experience of capturing people/events on video
• Have experience of editing footage
• Maintain sensitivity, confidentiality and discretion at all times
• Be able to work as part of a team and independently
• Maintain a professional approach
• Have good communication skills and be sensitive to the situation and feelings of other people

Interviews, training and assessment process:

At Noah’s Ark, we value volunteer support, but we are also aware that not all roles are suitable for everyone.  The interview and training process is in place to ensure that the Noah’s Ark staff get to know more about you, that you are given the correct training for the role and that you can find out if this is a role you would like to undertake.  The training process is as follows:

• Volunteer Information Session: All potential volunteers have to attend one of these sessions before they are able to support Noah’s Ark in any capacity. They are held monthly on weekday evenings or Saturday mornings.
• Interview: This will take place at the Noah’s Ark Office at a mutually agreeable time.
• Core Training (full day): Saturday or Sunday, training topics include Confidentiality and Boundaries, giving excellent customer service, grief loss and bereavement and infection control.
• Safeguarding Training (3 hours): 1 weekday evening - essential for ensuring the safety of our service.
• Brand training (2 hours)

• We are looking for volunteers to support our care team with administrative tasks that support us in providing efficient and seamless care services and empower our care team to focus on providing excellent care to children and their families.
• Main activities/tasks:. Scanning and filing paperwork. Data entry (database and spreadsheets)(full training will be given). Transferring information from Outlook calendars to timesheets (Excel). Assisting with stock rotation, monitoring levels of supplies and ordering. Minute taking in meetings. Other general administrative duties as required.
• Play a crucial role in enhancing our care services! We are looking for volunteers to provide administrative support to our care team to enable them to provide a better experience for seriously unwell children and their families.