Get Involved Volunteer for us Our volunteers are a lifeline to Cherry Trees and without the tremendous support of our amazing volunteers and donors Cherry Trees would not exist. They carry out vital activities and support that enables Cherry Trees to make a real difference to so many and without them we would not be able to provide the much needed short breaks that families with children with disabilities so desperately need. We are always looking for people to join our friendly and busy team and volunteering with Cherry Trees is a tangible way to give something back to your community, as well as gain experience and meet new people. Volunteering can help you be part of something outside your friends and family and gives you the chance to try something new, achieve hidden personal goals, utilise your talents and most of all have a great time whilst making a big difference. Whether you can offer a few hours, a regular day or would be interested in supporting a short term project, there are many ways for you to give your time, skills and energy to us. Volunteer roles x5 for 2019 - 2020 Have you seen our newest volunteer role ? We are excited to announce a new voluntary position this summer. Could you be our new Online Shop Co-ordinator or know someone who would be perfect for the post ? Check out the role description below. This year we have several roles which we really need some new volunteers to help us out with. Do you enjoy researching ? Maybe you like being out and about in the community or you're a stickler for tidying up databases and like record keeping and are in a position to lend a few hours. Check out the links below for details of some areas we are looking for help with. If you've never volunteered but have always wanted to, we are a really friendly team, welcome applicants from all sorts of backgrounds and previous walks of life and work closely with our volunteers to help them integrate and find their way when joining Cherry Trees. This is a lovely opportunity for individuals who maybe working part time, recently retired, looking to re-establish themselves in the working world, changing career or simply have a wish to help a charity in it's goals. Volunteer On-line Shop Co-ordinator Volunteer Database Support Volunteer Events Support Volunteer Trust Supporter and last but not least, we need someone (or several people) to take on being Cherry (!) Donning the 'Cherry' mascot suit is one of the many great ways you can volunteer at Cherry Trees for as little or as much time as you have spare!! Check her out in the video in action. Volunteer Cherry Trees Mascot Interested ? Call the Fundraising Team on 01483 222 507 for a chat or if you want to go for it and get started right away, click on the link for our volunteer form, download, fill in and email back to: [email protected] It's an easy form, takes only a few minutes to complete and the references provided can be a combination of long standing; colleagues, friend, professional, business associate, Lecturer / Teacher. Ongoing Other Ways You can Help We have lots of amazing people who do all sorts of roles for us, for a few hours a week, helping oil the wheels of our charities daily activities, ensuring our home from home respite care is continuous. Could you take on one of these ? Get on the road as a driver Join our band of volunteer drivers to drive one of our minibuses to transport our children to and from school or to the various activities that we take them to outside of Cherry Trees. Drivers need to be over 25 and hold a full UK driving licence, we will provide training if you haven’t driven a minibus before. Carol's been volunteering at Cherry Trees for 28 years! She helps drive our mini-bus, getting the children to school after staying with us. Listen to her account of what it's like to drive the big green bus, the training you receive and why it's an enjoyable flexible role. Cooking for our children We take pride in the fact that the food that we provide for our children is freshly prepared and very tasty! We are looking for a volunteer that has a passion for cooking home baked meals. If you can spare some time to dish up a lovely meal at lunch time, dinner or tea time we would love to hear from you. Cake Bakers Do you enjoy cake making and baking? We run numerous events throughout the year to raise much needed funds for Cherry Trees and we are always looking for people to make and bake cakes for these events. A great way to help us from the comfort of your home! Our cake bakers help us cater many of our events such as this one held at High Clandon Estate Vineyard, Summer 2019. This event saw over £1,000 raised on the tea and cake stall alone! Gardening We are currently looking for volunteers to help maintain our front and back gardens and if you have an interest in growing vegetables, to also help our children to plant and grow vegetables in our garden. Maintenance Do you like DIY? With 100 children using Cherry Trees we have odd jobs every day that need doing from washing the mini bus to painting or fixing door handles. Do get in touch if you have skills to help us keep Cherry Trees a well maintained ‘home from home’. Whether you are happy to undertake odd jobs or help our Head of care to manage the maintenance of the vehicles and building, we would be grateful for any support. Finance & IT We currently have to outsource our IT and any additional advice we require over and above of our IT package is an additional cost so we would greatly benefit from some expert advice. We also have one accountant who works 1.5 days a week which is a stretch for over 40 employees, if you have a financial background or are confident with figures and computer literate and could spare a few hours to assist her, you would be much appreciated. Events Our fundraising department organise a variety of events throughout the year, such as charity golf days, balls, operas, bridge teas, comedy nights and a host of collections days. We are always looking for people to either help organise, promote or help out events, in any way that you would feel comfortable Cleaning You can imagine the state of our house after 14 children leave after a fun filled stay! Our carers do a wonderful job at keeping the house presentable but at weekends and holiday periods they struggle to keep up with the house chores whilst looking after the children. Do you enjoy transforming a messy room into an organised, clean and tidy space? Our carers would be so grateful if you could spare a few hours during our really busy periods. Children’s activities Do you have an interest in art, drama, music or are great at organising games? Our children love to play, be creative and listen and dance to music. If you could spare some time on a regular basis whether it be monthly or weekly to help give our children a fun time whilst with us please get in touch. If you are interested in volunteering in any way shape or form we would love to hear from you. We are committed to safeguarding our vulnerable children so volunteering posts will require a DBS check. We will help you to apply for one and will cover the cost. Call our friendly fundraising office on 01483 222507 or email [email protected]