Parent organisation of Community Links, Foundation and Bridging the Gap

Volunteering and Student Placements

Volunteering and Student Placements

There are lots of volunteering and placement opportunities available within Inspire North, Community Links and Foundation.

 If you would like to know more about what’s on offer, or talk to us about any student placement opportunities that we may be able to offer, email: volunteering@inspirenorth.co.uk

For our latest volunteer vacancies please see below. You can also complete our Volunteer Enquiry Form to register your interest.

Alternatively, check out our volunteering pages on Community Links and Foundation for more information.

Want to make a difference, meet new people, gain new skills?

Volunteering provides you with the opportunity to make a real difference to people’s lives.

We’d be very grateful for your help and are happy to be as flexible as possible for reliable volunteers. From the satisfaction of helping someone through a tough time, to learning new skills and meeting like-minded colleagues, you’ll get a lot back.

We’ll be there to support you every step of the way and we’ll make sure you know exactly what you’re doing. All our volunteers receive regular support and supervision, access to training and the opportunity to shadow workers.

We welcome and value every volunteer from all walks of life and all kinds of backgrounds.

Why volunteer for Inspire North?

It’s a great feeling to know that you are helping people out or ‘giving back’ when you volunteer but have you considered the other benefits volunteering can give? Volunteering for Inspire North, Community Links and Foundation can help you to:

  • gain new skills and knowledge;
  • gain experience working in the health and social care sector among others;
  • get access to over 60 different free training courses;
  • boost your confidence and meet new people;
  • get involved in fun and rewarding activities.

Ready to make a difference? Come embrace your individuality and join us!
Here is how to get involved.

  1. Take a look at our current volunteer opportunities on the following pages:
  1. Complete an Application Form and include the role and service that you are interested in.
  2. We will contact you to confirm receipt of your application and next steps.

You can find more information and guidance on applying for a volunteer role here:

Latest Volunteer Vacancies

We are a leading provider of excellent, effective, and affordable mental health training. Our award-winning trainers are experts in their field within the mental health sector and pride themselves in delivering outstanding training.

We also provide and advise on in-house training for all our staff and volunteers, providing opportunity for professional development in-line with changes often met by services and support our colleagues to grow and achieve better outcomes.

This role will support our existing Learning & Development Administrators to manage the Training Team’s training schedule and promotion.

Some of the activities that the volunteer role will get involved in include:

  • Developing marketing materials to promote our training offer.
  • Managing training booking using the training booking system.
  • Creating and posting social media posts to promote our training offer.
  • Supporting data entries for our training database.
  • Other general admin duties as required.

Previous experience of general administration work is not a requirement, and this role provides an opportunity to learn transferable office administration skills. This role is subject to a DBS and Police Vetting checks.

For more information:    Training Admin Volunteer Role Profile

Young Dementia Leeds is a partnership between Community Links and Carers Leeds and offers a range of wellbeing, holistic, mutual and peer support, connecting people to groups and activities within their community helping people to live well with dementia.

As a Volunteer Driver you will be collecting and dropping clients off from their homes or other locations in Leeds. As well as driving you might also get involved in other activities based at the centre.

This role requires that you own a car and have a clean driving licence and is subject to an Enhanced DBS and Police Vetting checks.

For more information:
YDL Volunteer Driver Role Profile

 

Maltings Close in Beeston, Leeds provides 24/7 support and accommodation to give people time to develop independent living and wellbeing skills. We support people 18 years+ who have a mental health or personality disorder diagnosis. Clients are expected to get involved in the running of the hostel and the decisions that affect them, with emphasis on building a supportive community. The support offered is tailored to individual needs, with a focus on independence, developing skills and enhancing individual strengths to enable independent living. We aim to support residents to live self-sufficiently in the community at the point where they move on to their own accommodation. 

We are looking for dynamic and enthusiastic people to work with us on a volunteer basis within our small friendly team. The number of hours and working pattern is flexible. This role is an exciting opportunity to expand your skills and gain valuable experience. We are looking for volunteers to help us support clients to live healthy, safe, and independent lives. 

For more information: Maltings Volunteer Role Profile

 

The North Yorkshire Young People’s Pathway offers young people the necessary support, advice and mediation to enable them to stay in their present accommodation. Where it is not possible for someone to remain at home, we have a variety of accommodation options to suit their needs.

As an Activities Worker you will be expected to join-in and support activities with individuals or groups. Sharing your own experiences and creative skills. Various times and days dependant on the activity supporting – in the communal room of our office/ client rooms and in the community.

For more information:
Selby YPP Activities Volunteer Role Profile

 

Space to Share is a children’s psychotherapeutic counselling model of therapy. This model draws upon many theories and uses them to adapt to an individual child’s needs regardless of age or developmental stage. It provides various therapeutic interventions to alleviate the impact of domestic abuse.

You will be responsible for a small caseload of children/young people to whom you will deliver high quality tailored therapeutic intervention by providing a coordinated package of therapy and that takes individual preferences and needs of the child into account.

This role requires:
-Enhanced DBS.
-Access to a car or work purposes and hold a full current UK driving licence.
-Working towards a relevant children’s counselling/therapist qualification that is
registered with a relevant governing body for example UKCP, BACP, BAPT, BAAT,
TACT

For more information:
CTS Student Therapist Volunteer Role Profile

CLASS (Care Leaver Accommodation Support Service) is for young people leaving care who have housing-related support needs. CLASS supports with the challenges that care leavers experience during their transition to independent adult life. CLASS provides accommodation and floating support needed to be able to sustain their own tenancy by encouraging the development of the young person’s independent living skills.

CLASS is looking for a volunteer for any number of hours they can offer to help support additional admin activities. We require a volunteer for varied admin duties.

For more information:
CLASS Admin Volunteer Role Profile

To enquire about volunteering with us, please download and complete this Enquiry Form and send to volunteer@inspirenorth.co.uk

If you would like to apply for any of these volunteer roles, please download and complete the Application Form and email to volunteer@inspirenorth.co.uk 

For help and support when applying for one of our volunteer roles you can use this Volunteer Application Guidance.

If you would prefer to complete a paper Enquiry or Application form, no problem! Please contact us on either volunteer@inspirenorth.co.uk, 0113 273 9660 or by writing to:

Volunteer Development Manager
Inspire North
3 Limewood Rd,
Seacroft,
Leeds
LS14 1AB

If you are presented with any barriers and need assistance in completing your application, please contact us on either of the methods above.

HOW TO APPLY FOR  A VOLUNTEERING ROLE

If you would like to apply for any of the above volunteer roles, please download and complete the Application Form and email to volunteer@inspirenorth.co.uk 

To register your interest in volunteering or to see if we can create a volunteering role to suit you, please download and complete this Enquiry Form and send to volunteer@inspirenorth.co.uk

For help and support when applying for one of our volunteer roles please use our Volunteer Application Guidance document.

If you would prefer to complete a paper Enquiry or Application form, no problem! Please contact us on either volunteer@inspirenorth.co.uk, 0113 273 9660 or by writing to:

Volunteer Development Manager
Inspire North
3 Limewood Rd,
Seacroft,
Leeds
LS14 1AB

If you are presented with any barriers and need assistance in completing your application, please contact us on either of the methods above.

Our Volunteers!

Investing in Volunteers

Inspire North, Community Links and Foundation are proud to be an Investing in Volunteers (IiV) achiever, having been awarded the quality standard in September 2024 for the 3rd time. Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard for all organisations involving volunteers.

To achieve the award the organisation was assessed against six quality areas and proved to excel in all aspects of working with its volunteers. It shows that we value our volunteers and demonstrates our commitment to volunteering within the organisation.

 www.investinginvolunteers.co.uk

 

National Volunteers Week 2024. 
Ruth Kettle, CEO of Inspire North said that: 

”As its Volunteers Week I wanted to write a few words about the importance of volunteering, not just for the volunteers themselves but to us as an organisation.

Volunteers Week is a chance to recognise, celebrate and thank the UK’s incredible volunteers for all they contribute to our local communities, the voluntary sector, and society as a whole.”

You can hear more from Ruth here.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever felt so immediately comfortable in a new role. Thank you – I very much appreciate your kindness.” Angela Hunter, volunteer at Foundation Richmond.

”It is a supportive group. One of the most important aspects of volunteering is having the opportunity of getting to know other people. People have had very interesting lives. The group is open minded and supportive.” Peter, Volunteer at Oakwood Hall 

To hear more about volunteering at Oakwood Hall click here.

Clients at Young Dementia Leeds wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to their volunteers so coloured in this beautiful sign…

Shout out to our volunteers and Liaison and Diversion! (L&D)
Nick has been volunteering with the L&D service for just over a year now and has recently progressed into the paid peer support worker role. Well done! 

Andy started his volunteer journey with the L&D service in early 2023 and continues to offer his time as a volunteer. Thank you, Andy, for your continued support.