Volunteer roles

We have a wide and varied range of volunteer roles available. Everyone has something they can offer – whether it’s a professional skill such as accounting, hairdressing or IT. You might simply want to help out with some basic tasks around The Winchester Beacon like washing up, making tea, admin or just having a chat with our residents. Some of our volunteer roles don’t even require you to come into The Winchester Beacon, such as cooking a meal at home.

All our volunteers receive training and will always be supervised on site by qualified members of staff. Every volunteer is asked to complete a taster session. A DBS check will also be undertaken.

Regular volunteer roles:

Overnight volunteers

This vital role provides back-up support to the evening Project Worker by being present on-site overnight. Without our overnight volunteers we would not be able to open our doors every night of the year.

Overnight volunteers arrive at 9pm and assist the member of staff until around 11pm with tasks such as making tea, tidying up, chatting to residents. They then sleep in a private bedroom on our freshly made, comfy overnighter’s bed, with access to free WiFi and use of the staff bathroom. Overnighters are requested to stay until 8am the following morning. Overnight volunteers help out as regularly as they can with some coming weekly and others just a night every couple of months.

Hours: 9pm – 8am.

Saturday and Sunday daytime volunteers

Weekends have quite a casual, laid back feel with residents using it as an opportunity to relax and enjoy some quiet time.

There is always a member of staff on duty, weekend slots for volunteers run from 9am to midday, midday to 3pm and 3pm to 6pm. Volunteers may help prepare vegetables for the evening meal, put out afternoon cakes, or sort and pack away donated clothes.

There is the opportunity to sit in the TV lounge and chat with residents or simply bring in a book or catch up on personal emails. The important thing is to be a ‘presence’ at The Winchester Beacon because, without a volunteer helper, The Winchester Beacon is not allowed to open. In addition, there are the usual evening and night-time volunteer roles.
Hours: 3-hour slots from 9am.

Evening volunteers

Our evening volunteers come in from 6pm and volunteer alongside a trained member of staff. They help out with general tasks including making hot drinks, tidying communal areas and some light cleaning. Hours: 6pm until 9pm.

Kitchen volunteers/evening chefs

Our evening kitchen helpers come in from 6.30pm every night to either prepare an evening meal for our residents from scratch, or else heat and serve a pre-prepared meal. To ensure social distancing in the kitchen, volunteer cooks are currently not teaming up to do a shift unless they are from the same household. Support is available from the Evening Helper on duty to prepare the dining room. Hours: 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Volunteers with relevant professional expertise

If you have a professional skill that you feel might be relevant to our service we would love to hear from you. We have previously had expertise donated in the following areas: life coaching, drug and alcohol support, counselling, hairdressing, well-being, acupuncture, yoga and IT. Please get in touch if you feel your skills can enhance the lives of our residents.

Other daytime volunteer roles include:

Cleaning and housekeeping volunteers

To ensure that The Winchester Beacon remains a clean and welcoming place for residents. Tasks include cleaning, laundry and organising donated goods such as clothes and toiletries. Hours: Flexible.

Office admin/helper

We usually welcome volunteers to provide administrative assistance in our small, friendly but busy office. Tasks include typing, filing, sorting deliveries, answering the door and the phone and generally helping out around The Winchester Beacon. At the moment, due to the pandemic, we are keeping footfall to minimum so cannot have additional office volunteers but hope to be able to again in the future. Hours: Flexible.

Home cooking teams

Our residents love the daily home-cooked, nutritious meals that we serve, and which are an important part of the service we provide, but it can be a struggle for us to provide for all our residents every evening. We are always looking for volunteers or groups who can cook a meal at home and bring it in for us to freeze or serve that evening. Hours: Flexible.