Volunteer Handbook / Application Door 84

Thank you for expressing an interest in volunteering at Door 84 Youth and Community Centre.

This booklet aims to provide you with the opportunity to tell us a bit about yourself and what volunteer roles you would be interested in undertaking.

All the information you provide is strictly confidential in line with GDPR (2018) Please see our privacy policy on our website for more details – www.door84.org.uk

In order to work directly with children, young people and vulnerable adults you will need an Enhanced DBS (see page final for more details)

Youth Sessions

Door 84 opens 3 nights a week for 8-17-year olds, offering open access Youth Provision. We offer a wide range of play and leisure opportunities with trained and qualified Play, Youth and Community Workers. We also have specialised Project Workers who offer the opportunity to have a go and develop skills such as; DJ’ing, Dancing, Theatre and Arts and Football. As a volunteer youth support worker, your roles would include the general setting up, running of and closing of sessions. You will be expected to interact with and support staff and other volunteers.

Our Youth sessions aim to provide support to young people and offer them the opportunity to take part in activities and trips they may otherwise not have access to. Whilst promoting social development and inclusion for attendees.

Youth Sessions are delivered as follows:

Mondays - 17:30 to 19:30 – for ages 8 to 17 years.

Tuesdays - 17:30 to 19:30 for ages 8 to 12 years.

Wednesdays - 17:30 to 19:30 for ages 13 to 17 years.

Trips and Residentials  

We aim to offer all young people the opportunity to attend trips and residentials irrelevant of socioeconomic background. Each year we aim to run at least 2 residentials and multiple day trips such as to the local theme park, the coast and other exciting venues. We run these trips at a subsidised fee to make these accessible to all young people. This would not be possible without the help of our fantastic volunteers; by both their giving of time and help in raising funds at various events.

Community Sparks

Community Sparks is a Creative Arts and Social Group for adults with various disabilities, including learning disabilities and mental health illness. Staff, through consultation, create a programme of activities and deliver them with support of volunteers. Community Sparks run a creative group on a Tuesday 10.30-12.30 and an inclusive Disco on a Thursday 10.30-12.30. As a volunteer community support worker, your role would include general setting up, running of and closing down of sessions. You would also be expected to interact with both participants and their support workers and generally work as a team with community sparks staff and volunteers in order to support the sessions.

Community Cafe

Our Community Café operates every Wednesday 2pm to 4pm and offers the local Community a safe place to meet. Services include “pay as you feel” café and food and supplies stall, and a variety of information, advice and guidance services. The café regularly has attendance by other groups and professionals to support the aims of the project and the needs of its attendees. Volunteers on this project would be mostly helping with the practical running of the kitchen and stall. We would especially welcome anyone with specific skills and experience that could be beneficial to the project.  Please feel free to discuss things further.

Office Work

The work carried out within the office is vital. It ensures that sessions and projects can continue to be run smoothly. Volunteering within the office would provide you with the opportunity to get involved in and also gain skills in a range of different tasks such as: marketing, managing our social media sites, filing, creating documents, collating evidence and data which helps us to create reports for the funders who have provides us with grants to run Door 84.

Events & Fundraising

As Door 84 is a registered charity fundraising is essential. This ensures that we can stay open and continue to provide valuable services for young people and the community. As a volunteer fundraiser your role would include working as a team to plan, organise and deliver fundraising events as well as researching ideas and event opportunities within the area.

At Door 84 we value our volunteers and want to make sure that you make the most out of your time volunteering with us. We ask you to think of three aims you would like to achieve while Volunteering at Door 84 so we can work together to make sure your time with us is beneficial and rewarding experience.

My Aims

Please provide us with at least two references contactable by email. (These need to be referees you have had professional / academic relations with within the past 5 years)

(Examples of referees – College / University Tutors, Employers (past or present), Previous Volunteering Manager).

Volunteer Traffic Light Progression

In order to help our volunteers progress and take on new responsibilities at a comfortable level, Door 84 uses a traffic light progression system.

Your ID badge will correspond to your current progress stage.

All volunteers will begin their role as a Red Badge once they have completed their taster session.

Red Badge

Red badge volunteers are to be supervised by youth workers when in the presence of young people and community sparks participants and will shadow Youth Leaders and Community Workers in order to gain more understanding about the sessions and their role within them.

In order to progress, red badge volunteers need to have completed the induction process and ensured all their paperwork has been completed. This includes references, policies and procedures read and signed off and have completed a DBS check. Once the paperwork has been completed and the Volunteer Coordinator/Youth Manager feel the volunteer has gained enough experience within their role, they will move up to an Amber Badge.

Amber Badge

Amber badge volunteers have completed their paperwork and induction process and have the confidence to lead activities whilst under supervision of Youth Workers and Community Workers. Amber badge volunteers will not be left alone in an area with young people or community sparks participants without a green badge volunteer or a youth/community worker present. Amber badge volunteers will be expected to have a high level of knowledge when it comes to the session set up/close down and should be able to proceed without instruction during these periods. In order to begin their progression to a green badge, volunteers will need to have read and signed the care plans relevant to their sessions, shown a confidence in leading sessions and engaging with challenging behaviour amongst the participants and had a progression meeting with the volunteer coordinator. 

Green Badge

At the Green Badge stage, volunteers will be able to work with young people and participants without supervision and may be expected to temporarily supervise an area in the place of a youth/community worker. Green Badge volunteers will be expected to have a high level of confidence and be able to take a lead in dealing with challenging behaviour. As well as being able to lead other volunteers/young volunteers in the same area. This will be assessed by senior youth/community workers during session, and volunteers will be expected to meet with the volunteer coordinator in order to ensure the volunteer is prepared to take on the new responsibilities. At the green badge level, further training and opportunities within Door 84 can be discussed.

Clothing

Door 84 does not have a dress code or uniform however we ask that all our volunteers dress appropriately for their role taking into consideration of the participants they will be working for, the current weather and potentially partaking in messy activities such as baking or crafting. We also recommend our volunteers wear comfortable clothing and shoes as sessions can often involve a lot of standing and moving around, including activities such as football and dodgeball.

Volunteer Agreement

As our work at Door 84 revolves around building positive relationships with young people, we ask that volunteers can commit to a minimum of 60 hours volunteering. This is to ensure that both young people and volunteers feel that Door 84 is a stable and secure place for relationship building.

Due to the nature of the role it is vital to let us know if you cannot attend any sessions. This can be done via telephone, email or Facebook. Failure to contact Door 84 in an absence can result in your volunteer contract coming to an end.

We have volunteer holiday calendars for you to notify us in advance of scheduled volunteering holidays.

After your application has been received specific paperwork is required. The Volunteer Coordinator will be in
contact to assist you in completing the following;

• Enhanced DBS check dated within the past 3 years*
• Two email references
• Completion of an online E-learning Safeguarding Course
• Door 84’s Policies and Procedures to be read and signed off. These can be found online but we have paper copies in the office where they need to be signed.
• A picture for your ID Badge

*if you do not have access to your own enhanced DBS certificate then you can do one through our application process at a fee of £20.

If you agree to fulfil the contract stated above by completing at least 60 hours and completing the agreed paperwork, then please sign and date below;