Be Active - Community Support Volunteer

What will I be doing?

• Open Age, which runs the Be Active project, is looking for volunteer activity buddies to start as soon as possible. You do not need any background in physiotherapy or with older people – just enthusiasm, commitment, empathy, a positive attitude toward empowering older people, and good communication skills. Be Active supports older people to become more mobile and independent in their community. Volunteers work one-to-one for up to nine weekly sessions with people 60+ who have been prescribed physiotherapy exercises and physical activity goals. Assisting them in their exercises helps rebuild their confidence and ability to move around their home and communities. Open Age Coordinators and their NHS partners will train you and provide support throughout the programme. Once Volunteers are trained and matched with a client, they will spend about an hour with their client each week.
• Our trained volunteers support the client with their exercise plans, supervise and encourage them while going for outside walks. The volunteers encourage and support our clients with improving their physical health, aiming towards re-accessing the community and different facilities, that they have been cut off from.
• For up to 9 weeks, our volunteers visit the client, having done 1 session a week, for an hour.

What impact will this have?

• Our volunteers support the client with improving their health and confidence, with a goal of being able to re-integrate with the community around them.
• The role is fun and engaging, as the volunteer gets to meet a diverse range of clients.
• The impact the volunteer has in the clients journey is highly rewarding, and vice versa.

Commitment

• One hour a week.

What else do I need to know?

• We follow all the necessary Government guidance in relation to Covid.

Expenses

• We can cover travel costs.

Background checks

• A DBS check is required

Training

• There is a range of trainings we provide for our volunteers, which will be discussed after the application. All our training offer transferrable skills to a range of other fields.