Family Support Volunteers

Family Support Volunteer

Rainbow Trust Children's Charity supports families with a seriously ill child.

We are asking for volunteers who may be able to help families with a wide range of tasks to give them the freedom to spend quality time with children who may not have much time left and to relieve stress at this incredibly difficult time

How can you help - 3 main ways:

Supporting Children and Young People

(Siblings and ill child from 1 to 18)

Youth work activities like arts / crafts, music, sport, games, reading stories, trips to parks, trips to other places (such as swimming, canal boats, aquariums etc.). Tutoring or homework support (siblings of seriously ill children may miss out of parental support with these) and mentoring / befriending (spending time with children, giving them time to talk and to spend time with another person). You may also support seriously ill children and help improve the quality of their lives through your support.

Practical Tasks

Gardening, painting and decorating, cleaning, cooking meals, ironing, DIY, shopping and much more. We haven't thought of everything. If you have a skill or knowledge that maybe useful to a family talk to us about it

Emotional Support

It is likely that you will be offering some form of emotional support whenever you make contact with the family. This is usually about listening and understanding. You are not going to be able to solve their problems but you can be someone to talk to, a friendly face, giving time out from the challenge of their day to day lives.

You'll also find you have a lot of fun and that when time may be short it is important that time is spent well and creates positive memories for everyone. We will support you with this. We also support families with bereavement and beyond but we will not ask you to do anything you are not comfortable with

Support

Training

We offer up to 12 hours of training for you before you start your role. We will cover subjects like; palliative care, communication skills (verbal & non-verbal), boundaries (what you can and can't do), supporting others, safeguarding, staying safe and much, much, more...

Supervision

You will be supported in your role by experienced Family Support Workers. They deal with these problems every day and will support you to grow into your role and deal with any problems you might face.

You will also have personal development support from the Volunteer Project Manager who will help you with further training or other support you might need or want.

Counselling

If something affects you we will offer you counselling, if you think you need it.

The overall experience of our volunteers is overwhelmingly positive so remember it's about having fun and creating positive experiences for families and volunteers alike.

Requirements

We will never ask you to do anything you are not comfortable with. As a volunteer you are in control of what you take on

Commitment

Some volunteers offer support occasionally some every week, some more often. You will need to be able to attend the training which is likely to be on a weekday evening (we will be as flexible as we can) and as well as your volunteering you will need to speak to your supervisor once a month (at least)

DBS checks

We complete DBS checks on all volunteers and staff to protect the vulnerable people we work with. If you have something that might come up on a DBS talk to us about it first. It doesn't normally prevent you from volunteering (depending on the nature of any convictions)

References

We ask for two references from non-family members

Reliability

The most important thing is that you are able to be reliable and communicate any absences to families with as much notice as you can. This is vital if we are not to cause additional stress at a difficult time