Volunteering

Independant Volunteering:

Do you love working with animals? Do you enjoy being in the garden? Are you passionate about helping people? Do you want to feel part of the community and make new friends? We are always on the lookout for enthusiastic volunteers to help us on the farm. We are looking for skilled or unskilled people that would be interested in any of the following:

DIY
Animal care
Gardening
Woodwork
Administration
School Visits
Farmer Day Service
Evening Rotas
Café

Please note:

If you receive no reply to your application, it means unfortunately it was unsuccessful. This is usually because our volunteering spaces fill up quickly. We will try our best to get back to you to let you know the outcome, but this may not always be possible. The current wait time for a response is around 3 weeks.
Please be aware, we are experiencing a high level of applications for volunteering at the moment. Please be patient waiting for a call regarding your application.
The minimum age for volunteering is currently 16.

All farm volunteers need to have a high level of independence and be able to complete physical tasks without assistance, please get in contact if you don't think this is possible, and we will be happy to help refer to other farm services.

*Please check your junk for any emails from us

Independent Volunteer Application Form

Supported Volunteering:

Thanks to funding from the short breaks fund, we are now running supported volunteering sessions for people aged 16-25 with social, emotional, or mental health difficulties through an adults wellbeing workshop.

Timings for the sessions are:

Tuesday and Wednesday from 3:30 - 5

These volunteering slots give people who need a little support to get into volunteering a bitesize evening opportunity, with more support available through increased staff presence and smaller groups.

The aim of these sessions is to offer those that need a little extra support to engage in mental wellbeing boosting experiences, as well as learning life and employability enhancing skills.

General duties will involve:

Animal care
Getting the animals in for the night
Maintenance around the site
Gardening

This volunteering opportunity has to be booked through the form below, as the aim is to offer a supportive experience for as many people in need as possible.

Once booking is confirmed, please join us on the above times and dates.

For any more information, please email: [email protected]

Youth Volunteering

Thanks to funding from the Ford Fund, the farm is now happy to announce youth volunteering opportunities.

Aimed at teaching more employability skills and improving life skills, these opportunities will enable young people aged 14 and 15 to have work experience on the farm, in our shop, and in our café.

Opportunities will be uploaded here throughout the year. Current times and opportunities are below:

Saturday (11-2): Café and farm shop work experience
Sunday (11-2): Café and Farm shop work experience

*All under 16 year olds will be shadowing a DBS checked member of staff. We are happy to write references after the work experience. Spaces are limited, so if you do not hear back, this unfortunately means the spaces has already been taken.

Due to high interest, we have closed applications until Christmas

Please read: Volunteer code of conduct

Volunteer Ambassadors

The farm strives to offer a supportive and empowering volunteering programme, which teaches life and employability skills, as well as improves mental wellbeing. With our volunteers being at the heart of the farm, we wanted to offer a Ambassador programme that offers a higher level of training for our volunteers. This means that these volunteer ambassadors are able to be role models for all the new volunteers coming in and joining us each week.

Our aims for the ambassadors are:

To be role models for every volunteer on the farm and be their voice
To gain confidence in what they do to be able to help and train other volunteers
To help the farm raise awareness within the community
To attend outside events to promote the farm and possibly share their stories

What will the farm do:

Supply training in areas needed/wanted
Have regular meetings with the ambassadors to hear opinions and help them with their role
Provide opportunities for outside training and events the ambassadors can attend
The ambassadors will be included in staff meetings to ensure they are heard

Roles and responsibilities:

To gather feedback from other volunteers whether through surveys or drop-in sessions
To have meetings with staff to discuss this feedback
To help staff run events such as fundraising evenings and open days
To help staff run training sessions and train new volunteers
To help staff at optional talks or promotional events

Volunteers need to:

Have worked at least 6 months regularly
Be reliable and trustworthy
Be open and honest
Be enthusiastic and want to learn more
Be happy to talk to other and gain their opinions
Commit to this role for at least 6 months

Standards:

To inspire other volunteers
To gain feedback through sessions
To attend training sessions
To attend activities, sessions, open days and events
To train other volunteers in the general tasks around the farm
To commit 6 months to the role
To participate in feedback sessions and help to implement changes
To be open and honest

*This role is currently invite only - please do not fill this out unless talked through with Tom the farm manager, and Danni the community lead. If interested, please do talk through with the above.

Next steps:

Application - fill this out!
Interview
Agree to standards

Once you have responded, Tom or Danni will be in contact within a few weeks to arrange an informal interview. We are also happy to answer any questions you may have.