Children and Parenting Support

About the opportunity 

This is a rewarding role where you can feel that you have made a difference to someone’s life. 

We are looking for volunteers who are interested in making a difference by offering their time, skills, and expertise to support the work that we do.  

Our Refuge teams provide an effective and supportive service for children and young people and offer support to their parent or carer through parenting support who have witnessed domestic abuse.  

The service offers a range of groups Including, Kids Clubs, Stay & Play and Family Activity sessions. 

Important: This is not a counselling role as Leeway does not provide counselling to people who use our service. This opportunity is restricted to female applicants due to the nature of the role (S.7(2)(e) SDA applies. Exempt under the Equality Act 2010 Schedule 9, Part 1). 

 Volunteers are an important and valued part of Leeway. We offer you: 

 •  An introduction to the charity and your team/project/role 

 •  Any training for your role, as stated in the role description 

 •  After three months of your help on a regular weekly basis, we can supply a reference 

 •  Support, feedback, appreciation and encouragement 

 •  To solve any problems as best we can 

 •  Free refreshments when you are on shift 

 •  Respect your dignity and treat you with kindness 

 •  Make use of your skills and talents and help you to develop new ones, if desired 

 •  Reimburse you for your travel expenses, 

 •  Ensure volunteering opportunities best suit your needs and Leeway’s needs 

 •  Keep you up-to-date with information concerning your role and the charity 

 •  A safe volunteering environment including covering you with insurance whilst you are 

     volunteering 

 •  Equal opportunities and fairness 

 •  Protect your personal information, holding it confidentially. 

What skills do I need? 

You may be someone with previous experience of children and young people’s work, a good listener, although this is not necessary – you may simply be passionate about helping others. 

You may have experienced domestic abuse in your own life or supported a friend or family member through a difficult period in their life and wish to support our work and organisation. 

You may feel you have a lot of life skills, knowledge, and empathy that you could share and use to support others. 

A knowledge of inputting records onto a database would be useful but full training and guidance is given.  

What will I be doing? 

• To assist the Leeway member of staff with delivering a caring, confidential and supportive service for children and young people and for their parent/carers. 
• To help create opportunities for children of all ages using play, games, sports, drama, artwork to promote children’s intellectual, physical, social and emotional development. 
• To help with setting up the group environment for school age children’s groups and pre-school groups with the staff member to provide a safe and welcoming space. 
• To bring your ideas into refuge to enhance the content of the services being delivered. 
• To help the staff member with the necessary end of session cleaning as needed to ensure health and safety. 
• Provide advice, research information with the help of a member of the staff team. 
• To assist a Leeway member of staff with running of creches to help with Leeway being able to deliver group learning to parent/carers with children. 
• To ensure that any Child Protection or Vulnerable Adult issues and concerns are reported to the Leeway member of staff running play sessions immediately. 

• Supporting our culture of participation by capturing the voice of young people to continuously improve our service.  

Location: Our locations are confidential, once you have completed the confidentiality form, locations can then be disclosed.  

Support: We provide full support and guidance while you are volunteering and offer travel expenses, this role may include travel. 

Training: You will be given an induction to the charity, and training which includes Domestic Abuse Awareness, DASH Risk Assessment, Professional Boundaries & Confidentiality and Befriending.  

DBS checks will need to be carried out.