How you can help

Volunteer

LGBT*Q+ Volunteers are at the heart of our organisation – they support our work with LGBT*Q+  young people and their families, they raise money for us to provide our vital services and help promote the needs of LGBT*Q+  young people to other people.

Our volunteer application form and monitoring form can be downloaded below  –   please complete both and return them to us.

Outreach youth Volunteer Application Form

Outreach youth Equality Monitoring Form

We want to make everyone who gives their time to us feel valued and proud to be involved with Outreach youth.

We work with two types of volunteers:

One off volunteers

• who volunteer for one off events rather than committing for a longer period of time – such as helping at events, fundraising or undertaken a specific task.

Regular volunteers

• who commit to a specific number of hours for a specific role – such as helping at our LGBT*Q+ Youth Groups

We appreciate that most people want to volunteer because they want to make a difference and feel that volunteering is a two way experience and there should be benefits in return for your time.

Here are some of the benefits:

• Meet new people
• Training opportunities
• Add value to your curriculum vitae
• Volunteer flexibly around your other commitments
• Supporting vulnerable young people and make a difference
• We can provide a reference to a future employer if that would be helpful
• Feel valued as part of the Outreach youth team

Our current volunteer roles

LGBT*Q+ Youth Group Volunteer

This role helps Outreach youth staff to run our LGBT*Q+ Youth Groups – providing a safe, supportive spaces  for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer or Questioning young people aged under 19 years.

At our LGBT*Q+ Youth Groups, LGBT*Q+  young people can access information and support, meet other LGBT*Q+ young people and take part in a range of social and informal education youth work activities designed to promote their well-being and personal development (e.g. sexual health info. sessions, coming out and other relevant topics as well as more social, creative and practical activities such as art, drama, life skills, cooking etc).

In line with our Safeguarding Policy, all volunteers must attend an interview, supply two referees and undergo a DBS check.

 OY LGBTQ Ipswich Youth Group Volunteer Role Description

Supporting our volunteers

Induction/Training

All our LGBT*Q+ Youth Group Volunteers complete an induction process, this introduces volunteers to how Outreach youth works, their role as a LGBT*Q+ Youth Group Volunteer, safeguarding and a summary of our policies. We encourage all LGBT*Q+ Youth Group Volunteers to attend other training opportunities while they volunteer with us.

Probationary Period

We have a probationary period of 6 months – this provides our volunteers with the opportunity to change their mind once they are volunteering with us and provides us with the opportunity to discuss alternative volunteering options should we feel a volunteer is not suited to Outreach youth.

Supervision/Support

Supervision is an opportunity for the volunteer to reflect on their progress, raise any concerns they may have and make plans for how they would like their volunteer role to develop. Volunteers can also contact a worker any time during working hours if they have particular concerns that they urgently need to discuss.

Volunteer expenses

We try to be able to cover the realistic transport expenses of volunteers to our LGBT*Q+ Youth Group sessions – these payments are subject to funding.

To find out more about Volunteering – please use our Contact Form

Donate

Outreach youth relies on the generosity of individuals, grant makers and corporate donors: to continue to provide its essential support and services to LGBT*Q+ young people.

You can support Outreach youth’s work  through a variety of ways such as making a one off donation or setting up a regular donation.

You can make a donation here:

Fundraise

Outreach youth relies on the generosity of individuals, grant makers and corporate donors: to continue to provide its essential services to LGBT*Q+ young people.

You can fundraise to support Outreach youth’s work through a variety of ways including

• By making a one off donation,
• Setting up a regular donation,
• Holding a fundraising event,

Corporate Support

Your company can make a big difference to LGBT*Q+ young people.

There are lots of ways to raise funds for Outreach youth.

Ways to get involved at work:

Run for Outreach

Sign up to one of the many running events and raise money for Outreach youth through sponsorship

Organise an Event

Hold a dress down day, lunchtime quiz, cake sale, raffle or perhaps a sweepstake on a sporting event. All are great ways to get colleagues involved and create awareness of Outreach youth all while raising urgently-needed funds.

Matched Giving

Find out if your company would consider matching what you or your team raise, doubling your fundraising total.

Payroll Giving

The most tax effective way to give – direct from your pay.

Pro Bono

Your company may have staff with specific skills that would benefit Outreach youth on a one -off basis, such as

• A graphic designer to help us refresh our publicity
• A printing department who could print up our new publicity
• Marketing and publicity team who could help us develop a marketing strategy

Invite us to Meet You

We are happy to meet you and your team – we can tell you about the work we do and the difference it makes to LGBT*Q+ young people.