Volunteering with ECHO  

At ECHO we don't have barriers and you can be a participant, a volunteer and a member of staff! We also have participants on our board of trustees. We encourage our participants to get involved with volunteering and this can be in several different ways. 

To start off, some of our participants become 'helping hands' at the activity they attend. This means that they help with different tasks, depending on their level of ability. Some of the jobs helping hands do are:  

• Making drinks and washing up
• Signing people into the activity
• Calling out numbers for bingo  

 

Sometimes participants become full ECHO volunteers, normally supporting a different activity from the one they attend.

Participant volunteers go through the same process as all our volunteers, of course with plenty of support at every stage.

This involves having a CRB check, getting 2 references, and taking part in training and induction. All our volunteers, including participants, are well supported once they join an activity, by the activity leader and volunteer co-ordinator. 

We also encourage our participants to get involved in volunteering opportunities outside ECHO. This can be done as part of a group - for example our Lifelinks groups do shopping for older people and deliver community newsletters.

We can also help individual participants to find volunteering placements, for example in local charity shops.

We work closely with the charity shops managers to support the placement.

Some of our participants have become indispensable members of the staff teams at charity shops in Leominster and Tenbury.

 

If you would like to become a volunteer, or you know someone who may be interested, please get in touch with Steph at the Leominster office - 01568 620307
Email: steph.baines@echoherefordshire.co.uk