As a volunteer, you give us the gift of your time so we certainly wouldn’t expect you to go out of pocket by volunteering for us. We reimburse all reasonable travel expenses up to £15 each time you volunteer. If you’re supporting at any one time for over four hours, we’ll also reimburse up to £5 for your lunch.

We welcome volunteers from different ages, and backgrounds with a variety of experiences, interests and skills. After you apply, we’ll review your application to ensure the charity is the right fit for you and arrange an informal chat either in person or over the phone. This will give us a chance to explore your skills and interest in the role, and gives you the opportunity to ask us any questions you have. It’s as much about your decision as it is ours.

We will acknowledge receipt of your application within one week of applying. Some roles require an informal interview and training as part of the recruitment process but we’ll let you know what will happen next when you apply.

We encourage applications from all who are interested in volunteering. We list on our volunteer role descriptions if you need to be of a certain age to apply for a role, for example our Helpline Volunteer is for those who are aged 18 and over. If you would like to volunteer and are under the age of 18, please contact us and we can chat through the volunteer roles you can get involved with or if you’d like to do work experience with us.

This is dependent on the volunteer role. Some opportunities have a small commitment time or are one off roles that only need your support for a few hours, for example being a Cheer Squad team member at one of our challenge events. However, other roles like our Helpline Volunteer role require volunteers to commit to a regular four-hour shift once a week for a minimum of one year. We would like our roles to be accessible to a range of individuals. If you have other commitments such as caring responsibilities, a disability or long-term health issue, please get in touch to discuss flexible opportunities.

Some of our volunteer roles involve supporting people affected by missing directly as well as looking at sensitive information. These roles will either require a Basic or Enhanced DBS check as well as references as part of our safer recruitment policy. We accept volunteers with prior convictions; however, these will be assessed on an individual basis with discretion. We give prospective volunteers the opportunity to disclose prior convictions on their application, but if there was anything you wanted to discuss prior to filling out the application, please do get in touch.

We encourage those who have been affected by the issue we care so much about to apply to volunteer. We want you to be a part of helping others in a similar situation, whether that’s on the frontline on our Helpline, supporting us at an event or helping a specific team. When we receive your application, we’ll get in touch to chat things through with you. We want to make sure you’d be happy and confident in your role, as well as ensuring you receive the right support from us.

Our work experience opportunities are currently in review. Please contact the Volunteer Team to find out more.

Yes. We have a variety of volunteer opportunities including Micro Volunteering, one-off volunteering as well as short-term project based roles. If you would like to get involved on a short-term basis, please take a look at our volunteering opportunities or get in touch.

Each volunteer role comprises of different lengths of training and induction. For some roles, training will comprise of classroom-based learning and/or practical training once in the role. For all volunteer roles, there are essential online e-learning modules to complete which will guide you in your volunteer role as well as letting you know about the policies and practices we follow as a charity. You’ll be part of a compassionate and encouraging team with ongoing support from your staff supervisor as well as the Volunteer Team throughout your time with us.