Want to make a difference?
Volunteer with NAViGO and help improve the lives of people with mental health illnesses
Are you wanting to make a difference?
Maybe you’re looking to gain knowledge in an area to eventually apply for paid work within mental health.
Maybe you’re a student looking for a new experience to add to your CV or a non-clinical mental health placement.
Or maybe you just want to give up your free time to help out the local community and have fun!
Working with Care Plus Group, we also support employability placements to give people the skills they need to apply for vacancies in their chosen field.
Whatever your reasons for volunteering with us, we’ll be happy to welcome you into the NAViGO family! All we ask is that you share our values and have a desire to support, and learn from, others.
We work with you to identify where your skills and interests would fit best within the organisation.
We offer volunteer opportunities across NAViGO, in areas such as:
- Older people’s services
- Eating disorders
- Adult inpatient lodges
- Carers groups
- Administration
- Nexus Youth Forum
- Finance
…and many more! No matter what area you’re interested in, you’ll play a vital role within the organisation, working alongside our staff members to provide high quality services.
We’ll give you a full induction and provide you with training and personal development opportunities to make sure you have all the tools you need to support service users.
We offer three main types of voluntary placements.
Core volunteers share their time, skills and knowledge to help support staff and service users. This may include supporting groups, befriending service users, delivering activities or supporting awareness-raising events.
This role does not take the place of a paid worker and there's no set period of time you need to volunteer for. We're happy for you to volunteer for as long as you are willing.
Employability placements, facilitated through Care Plus Group, are for individuals who want to gain experience in support worker, administrator, domestic, kitchen assistant or caretaker roles. They're almost like a 'try-before-you-buy', enabling you to test whether you would enjoy working in the field, or helping you build skills to use on a CV.
These placements are for 16 hours a week and while they are treated as voluntary, we encourage you to commit to the hours agreed. They initially last for 12 weeks, but can be extended to 23 weeks depending on the individual's needs. We can even provide references for job applications after your time with us comes to an end.
Non-clinical student placements are for students from local universities and colleges. You don't need clinical skills to fill these roles and those studying subjects like Mental Health, Therapies, Social Care and Counselling are often attracted to these opportunities.
We support you with regular reviews and provide references if you go on to apply for other courses or paid work.
Absolutely! Volunteering helps people gain new skills and experiences and for some it can be a stepping-stone to paid employment.
If you’re feeling a bit lost and your career is in need of some direction, volunteering is the perfect option to see if working within mental health is right for you.
And if you’re not lacking focus, volunteering still looks great on your CV! We have beauty therapists giving treatments on our lodges and healthcare professionals pulling shapes in our dance groups!
You can apply to become a volunteer by completing this web form.
Once we've received and processed your application, we'll be in touch with the next steps.