By Volunteering

Our volunteers are the life-blood of the organisation.

Without your support, we simply would not be able to reach out to all the vulnerable individuals who need our help, or sustain our many projects and activities around the UK.

If you are considering becoming a LIFE volunteer - or if you are already helping us in this way - words do not go far enough to thank you for the time you have devoted to support LIFE.  We hope that we have as many volunteering opportunities as we have different volunteers' skills and interests. Here are some typical examples of how volunteers are helping LIFE at the moment:

• Working in a LIFE charity shop
• Becoming a trained counsellor or skilled listener
• Visiting a school or college to give a talk to students
• Helping out with administrative office tasks
• Participating - or running - a LIFE Skills programme course 
• Helping out with odd-jobs around a local LIFE house (re-decorating, cleaning, gardening)
• Organising a fundraising event
• Holding a street collection
• Collecting or distributing donated baby goods (or other products)

Working in a LIFE charity shop

We have ten LIFE charity shops in operation around the country. Selling baby clothes to jewellery and everything in between, the shops are a great place to snap up a bargain whilst helping support LIFE's work with vulnerable young families.

Each shop relies on volunteers to work on the shop floor, selling items and helping customers. Other, less customer-facing opportunities are available too - such as helping with logging new donated items and managing the storeroom. 

If you could spare just a few hours a week, your local LIFE charity shop would love to hear from you. Click here for details of your nearest shop.

Becoming a trained counsellor or skilled listener

We have 39 Care Centres around the country, and operate a telephone Helpline, all offering emotional and practical support to anyone facing a crisis pregnancy or any pregnancy-related problem.

Fully-qualified Diploma counsellors volunteer their services, offering one-off sessions and contract counselling free-of-charge. All LIFE counsellors use a person-centred, non-directive approach. They are professionally trained and supervised and have a wealth of experience in before and after abortion counselling.

If you have a BACP-recognised qualification (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and would like to volunteer your services at a Care Centre near you, please contact LIFE on 01926 421 587 for more information. If you do not already have a recognised qualification, but would like to work towards one, please e-mail nickirichardson@lifecharity.org.uk

If you would prefer to become a skilled listener, we also run internal training courses for this option. Just e-mail Nicki to find out more.

School or College Talks

Some volunteers support LIFE by giving talks to students at a local school or college.  Our range of talks span all ages and cover the following topics:

• Abortion
• Relationships and Sex
• Assisted reproduction
• Life before birth

We offer full training and presentation kits for anyone interesting in volunteering to give talks.

For more information, e-mail stuartcowie@lifecharity.org.uk or call 01926 421 587.

Office Admin

Finished your studies but not got a job offer yet?  Want to get some work experience before you decide which career's right for you? Need to bump up your CV before that interview? Or simply got some time on your hands? Then get involved in LIFE's office admin volunteer scheme. 

Whether you are 18 or 88 we have a range of office tasks that we need help with. You can volunteer on an ad hoc basis, or over any time frame to suit you. The more regularly you come, the more interesting the tasks are that we can provide.

Work ranges from data inputting to writing press releases and newsletters to helping with processing donations that we receive here in our Leamington Spa Head Office. 

If you are interested, please e-mail susanmurray@lifecharity.org.uk or call on 01926 421 587.

LIFE Skills Programme

We run a LIFE Skills programme across our network of 27 LIFE Houses. Each house offers safe, supported accommodation for small groups of young women aged between 16 - 25 who are homeless and either pregnant, or with a very young child.

The women we help in this way have become homeless because they are fleeing domestic violence, an abusive relationship or have some other disadvantage. Many have never had the opportunity to learn basic life skills such as healthy eating, how to budget and manage money, or take care of their baby.

On entering a LIFE house, trained Support Workers put together a unique development plan for each new resident. Sometimes, volunteers assist in the delivery of the training sessions, such as cookery or healthy eating.

Other volunteer opportunities around the houses include helping with odd jobs like putting up shelves, gardening, mowing the lawn or other household maintenance. Occasionally, a group of volunteers will get together to help with redecoration, or general cleaning.

If you would be interested in helping out with any of these kinds of activities, please e-mail Margaretcoward@lifecharity.org.uk or call 01926 421 587.

Distributing baby goods

Volunteers in our network of 39 Care Centres collect donated baby clothes and equipment such as pushchairs, cots or Moses baskets. They put items together with baby shampoo and other toiletries, and give them to the young families that are receiving support from the Centre.

Many of these families are on low incomes, or come from deprived parts of each local area and would struggle to provide for their newborn child without this kind of support.

There are plenty of opportunities for anyone to give up a few hours to collect donated items, put packs together or give them out to needy families. Just call 01926 421 587 to lend a hand at your nearest Centre.