Community Buddy

Community buddies enable children and young people with a disability to access the community or support them to take part in activities or groups of their choosing within the local community. Community Buddy Volunteers will support children and young people aged 10 to 17 with disabilities and/or additional needs to access their local community. This could include taking them to the shops and supporting them to choose and pay for items or supporting them to access public transport in order to provide them with key life skills and help them meet outcomes outlined at the start of their Buddy journey.

A Community Buddy Volunteer could also attend a community group or club with the young person or child, again to help them meet their outcomes ensuring that they can access the club/group with their peers and support them to take part in activities. It may be as simple as taking a child or young person to the park or the cinema; enabling them to do things their peers can do without a parent/carer. As a Buddy volunteer your role will be to help develop the young person’s confidence and skills to access clubs/group and the wider community, independently where appropriate, and helping them to achieve personal goals and outcomes.

Volunteers will be matched with young people and offer one-to-one support. A crucial aspect of being a volunteer Buddy will be the ability to build positive relationships which allow children and young people to feel supported to access the community.

Buddy sessions are likely to take place in a variety of local settings to be agreed between the child or young person and their family, and may include the community or clubs and activities that a child or young person requires support to attend.

All volunteering expenses including mileage to and from the child or young person’s home will be paid.

Process:

You will need an account to register your interest for this role. Once you have registered your interest you will receive an automatic email with next steps. If you have not received this in a couple of hours, please do get in touch as it may not have registered (volunteering@hiveportsmouth.org.uk). 

You will need to respond to the "Criteria Check" email to progress with this role. 

Please check your junk email folder in case any emails end up there.  Friendly reminder that the charities/organisations emails may end up here too. 

Don't forget you can add up any volunteering hours as part of Team 100 Opportunity - Hive Portsmouth or part of the Donate 100 things challenge Opportunity - Hive Portsmouth.

Skills

We are looking for volunteers aged 18+ from any background, previous experience is not essential as training and support will be provided. We are seeking volunteers who can:

- Communicate well with children, families and other professionals
- Build and maintain positive relationships with children and young people
- Listen and remain calm and impartial when dealing with children and young people
- Record information accurately
- Respect differing views of individuals and work in a non-judgmental way
- Respect confidentiality and the agreed information sharing process
- Have the confidence to report concerns to their Volunteer Coordinator
- Be able to describe their role and maintain professional boundaries