Volunteering
As we see over 5,500 individuals each year, volunteers are vital in the provision of our services and in ensuring we engage with each client on a human level. They provide the emotional and social support that is vital in helping individuals to reintegrate back into society. Without the assistance of our volunteer workforce, many more homeless people could become entrenched into street living, substance misuse or the criminal justice system.
The Connection at St Martin's volunteers represent the wider community who access our services and becoming a volunteer with our charity can contribute to your personal and professional development. Volunteering is an excellent way to develop skills, knowledge and experience. We’re committed to providing our volunteers with a rewarding and supportive experience and we can offer:
- Volunteer induction, training and support
- Good all round experience in the homeless sector
- Friendly, interesting and lively environment
- Day, evening and weekend volunteering opportunities
- Central London location
In line with government guidance, all our volunteers must be checked by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), as you will be working with a vulnerable client group.
If you would like to find out what vacancies we currently have for volunteers – please contact our Volunteer Manager, Lance Kuhn on 020 7766 5555 or email lance.kuhn@cstm.org.uk.
Individual volunteering
Volunteers bring a huge range of skills, backgrounds, abilities and experience to our services, which in turn benefit our users. Without the diversity, talents and enthusiasm that volunteers bring to us on a daily basis we would not be able to run the quantity or quality of services which allow us to meet our clients diverse needs.
Volunteers are currently active in:
- Serving hot meals morning and lunch time every day of the year, and evening meals twice a week
- Helping to run creative groups such as art, singing, playing musical instruments or drama
- Providing support to the various weekly group sessions for clients such as a women’s group, 50+ group and Linked (black & minority ethnic -BME) group
- Help clients access training or employment opportunities by offering professional skills training through Workspace
- Assisting the medical teams who attend the day centre
- Covering our shower and laundry facilities
- Helping at the reception desk and providing translation services
- Handing out donated clothing
- Working behind the scenes in marketing and administration
- Contributing to crucial off-site fundraising activities
Volunteers quotes
“The best part of volunteering is working with the friendly staff in a nice atmosphere where everyone is equally dedicated to providing the best service to the clients"
“All my experience so far has been really good – really excellent training and everyone is very supportive and have encouraged me to ask questions and have been very open and honest about all the issues that the clients, volunteers and staff face.”
“All the staff and fellow volunteers are really great and one can tell that it makes a big difference to a lot of the client’s happiness to use the services. All in all it’s been very rewarding and enjoyable to work with The Connection at St Martin's and a big thank you for organising such nice volunteers’ parties!”
If you would like to find out current volunteer vacancies – please contact Lance Kuhn, Volunteer Manager on 020 7766 5555 or email lance.kuhn@cstm.org.uk.
Day Centre Volunteering
If you are one of the many companies that now allocate an annual allowance of time for employees to undertake voluntary work, you might like to encourage your employees to volunteer in our Day Centre for homeless people, based in Trafalgar Square.
Kitchen Volunteering
We are currently looking for companies to ‘own’ a two hour shift in our kitchen during the week, providing us with two employee volunteers for each shift. Working alongside our fully trained staff and other volunteers, this is a really practical way for your staff to get involved with the ‘hands-on’ work of our charity. From meal preparation to serving on the counter or washing up, your staff really will be making a difference to our clients’ health and well-being.
To get started call our Deputy Director of Fundraising, Wendy Lynch on 020 7766 5555 or e-mail wendy.lynch@cstm.org.uk.
Delivering Complementary Therapies at The Connection at St Martin’s
Faith became a volunteer at The Connection at St. Martin’s two years ago whilst studying for a Masters degree at the University of Westminster. The course required her to spend half a day each week with a group of people, to explore issues around anti-oppressive practice.
Originally a drug and alcohol worker, she had also trained in reflexology, as part of addiction treatment. When she joined The Connection at St Martin’s she was placed with our group for entrenched rough sleepers and a couple of its members expressed an interest in trying reflexology. She began practising and found that many positive changes were occurring in the client’s wellbeing and circumstances. From there, she began to volunteer in the Women’s Group.
Following the obvious benefits of the reflexology to the clients, we decided to employ Faith on a part-time basis. Faith said: “becoming a paid member of staff has been extremely important to me because it has meant that I am in the service for many more hours per week, am able to give more time and energy to the service and feel that the treatments that I provide are truly valued. My time commitment to the service has needed to increase now that I am paid, but the support that I have received from those around me has enabled this work to develop with ease. Working here is without doubt the most interesting and enjoyable work that I do and I feel very fortunate to work in such an important homelessness service. I feel surrounded and supported by a very professional team of people and therefore find working with our clients an engaging and enjoyable process”.