Volunteer your way into work!

I joined 'do-it' last week, it's the national volunteering website which you are linked to if you search for positions on the job centre website. I was amazed to find how positions there were, i typed in Hull as my town and up to 10 miles radius I was willing to travel - there was 402 positions which needed filling. I only made it to page 9 and I had already applied for 12 positions.

Some of the positions I applied for were;
-Cafe Helper
-Young Person Supporter
-Shop Volunteer Red Cross
-Digital Champion
-House Guide
-Publicity Officer
-Fundraiser Volunteer
-Street Angel
-Car Boot Sales Volunteer
-Barnados Retail Assistant
-Dove House Retail Assistant.

Although I obviously won't be able to do all of these, I am hoping to try and juggle two maybe because many of them only require you on an afternoon twice a week, or on a Friday and Saturday night. Also, in this time I does need to continue my search for a job! (it's not going great!) So I can't just volunteer for 40 hours a week - I have bills to pay!

However, this is going to sound cliche but volunteering isn't just something good to write on your CV, even though technically it is! Volunteering is a great way to gain experience and skills, it is a way to network - imagine if you make an impression on someone, when a job comes up they may think of you first to offer it to? And lets not forget, volunteering is a great way to give something back to a community project which really needs more people helping to keep it open, imagine how many people you are helping. Although you don't tend to see any tangible rewards, you can't help but feel like you've done good. When I worked with the British Red Cross it was a great experience, I met some fantastic people and really got to grips with how important a charity shop is to a community, as you recognize the same faces each week. (-that sounds really judgmental  it's not meant to be. Soz)

To those who I know who are searching hard for work, volunteering isn't a permanent decision but it something easy to get into which most times requires no experience (hallelujah!!), training given and you walk away with some new skills. Think about it. DO IT!

 http://www.do-it.org.uk/

The rest is up to you.
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Hope you enjoy! Thanks for reading! Good luck!