Wow hasn't 2020 inspired a lot of people to volunteer for charity?! 

Update: December 2nd 2020. 

Thank you for visiting our volunteer page and for expressing an interest in our work. We regularly have openings for all sorts of volunteer roles and invite people from across our community to apply.

Due to CV19 we are currently reviewing the roles we can offer and will post regular updates from January 2021 onwards. For now, please email [email protected] stating if you would like to assist with being a volunteer bus driver, event assistant, fundraising assistant, administration or whether you can offer other skills. We will review all applications in January 2021 onwards - please bear with us at this busy time. We'll be back in touch as soon as we can. 

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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.

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 with its goals. 

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 

Types of volunteering

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 often need 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. Vacancies will be advertised in the spring. 

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 and Maintenance Manager to manage the upkeep of the vehicles and building, we would be grateful for any support. 

Finance & IT

If you were interested in assisting with a project, we will be uploaded new roles in the spring. 

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 collection days.  We are always looking for people to either help organise, promote or help out at events. This is one of the key ways we need help. Fundraising income contributes over 40% of our total income and we could not operate without it. 

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.

Interested ? 

Please email your initial interest to [email protected] 

We will contact you and then if there is a role available and you would like to apply we will ask you to complete an application form and provide references which can be a combination of long standing; colleagues, friend, professional, business associate, Lecturer / Teacher. We are committed to safeguarding our vulnerable children so certain volunteering posts will require an online DBS check. We will help you to apply for one and will cover the cost.