Getting Together Matters

From creative writing to seated exercise and weekly quizzes, Getting Together Matters brings older people from across the UK together online to have fun and take part in a range of free events and activities during the pandemic.

RSVP Forth Valley

RSVP in Forth Valley encourages and assists older people to use their skills and experience to volunteer and keep active in retirement.

RSVP West

RSVP West is a key region for our RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme) and covers Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset.

Sporting Chance

Sporting Chance invites older men to join in activities and exercise groups from walking football to arm chair exercise, Aquasize to reminiscence sessions.

Telephone Befriending Volunteer Co-ordinator – Older People

The Telephone Befriending coordinator role will essentially be offering regular chats to vulnerable older people which reduce isolation and connect older people to others. The Telephone Befriending coordinator role might include helping to create new ideas to support people via phone or encouraging people to join other group activities.

Telephone Pals Volunteer – Getting Together Matters

Purpose of the role Volunteers are needed to provide some telephone company for people who are self-isolating and unable to leave their home as direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these people are already recognised as the most vulnerable in society; this could be due to a range of factors, including age or … Continued

Pen Pal Volunteer

Matching volunteers with people who want to receive friendly letters, combatting loneliness and isolation across the UK as part of Getting Together Matters.

GRANDMENTORS – VOLUNTEER (Wandsworth)

Grandmentors is an innovative volunteering project where older volunteers use their lifetime of skills and experience to support and mentor young people leaving the care system. These young people who are out of employment, education or training (NEET) often need a guiding hand and role model to support them to find work, continue their education or … Continued

GRANDMENTORS – VOLUNTEER (BRENT)

Grandmentors is an innovative volunteering project where older volunteers use their lifetime of skills and experience to support and mentor young people leaving the care system. These young people who are out of employment, education or training (NEET) often need a guiding hand and role model to support them to find work, continue their education or … Continued

RSVP West – Fundraising volunteer

We are looking for an over-50’s volunteer, resident in the RSVP West area, who would like to help the Regional Coordinator with fundraising.

GRANDMENTORS – VOLUNTEER (Wiltshire)

Grandmentors is an innovative project that sees older volunteers use their lifetime of skills and experience to support young people leaving the care system. This opportunity is for Grandmentors Wiltshire.

Grandmentors and Hounslow Allies

All local authorities have a statutory duty to provide independent visitors to all children in care (aged 8 – 16+) who would benefit. In Hounslow, London, we’ve been providing an Independent Visitor Service – Hounslow Allies – for over 12 years. We also run Grandmentors in Hounslow. Grandmentors is an intergenerational mentoring programme that matches … Continued

Learn Together Cymru: David’s Story

David is 79 and has been volunteering as a schools reading volunteer with Volunteering Matters since 2000. He told us about his favourite parts of the role, and shared some stories from his time in primary schools in Wales.

What it’s like to be a Grandmentor

Karen heard about Grandmentors through the local business community, and is already seeing a great difference in her mentee, only a few weeks into supporting her as a volunteer.

One Small Step Winter Update 2017

Over the past few months the One Small Step Project has had no shortage of updates, and we thought there would be no better time to share them with you than to round up 2017!
Rose

Learning for Life Together: Rose’s Story

When 90 year old Hartcliffe resident Rose was approached to take part in a Bristol Ageing Better intergenerational learning project, she wasn’t keen on speaking directly with the children, so Volunteering Matters found a way for her to get involved on her terms.
Darina

Lifelines: Darina’s Story

Even though Darina works 3 days a week as a property lawyer, she makes time to volunteer when she can with LifeLines in Brighton.

Handyperson Project: Sandy’s Story

Sandy, 70, from Stirling has been volunteering with our Handyperson Project for the past 10 years and he told us what a day in his volunteer role looks like.

HealthLink: Nora’s Story

As part of our Older People Focus week, Nora told us about her experience of being part of HealthLink, which supports older people to get to their healthcare appointments.

Befriending Matters: Winifred’s Story

As part of our older people's focus week, we chatted to one of our long-serving volunteers about her experience as a telephone befriender, and found out what motivates her in her role.

RSVP West: Joan’s Story

"I've met all sorts of people. It's great to share all our stories and experience the pleasure in volunteering"

Grandmentors Programme Review

An external review of the Grandmentors programme, conducted between June and September 2017. The review looks at what Grandmentors offers in the current policy and commissioning environment, and how the model could be evolved for the future.

Grandmentors Golf day raises £5,000 for care leavers

Seventy supporters raised £5,000 for Grandmentors, an inter-generational award-winning project of Volunteering Matters. The money will help to provide weekly support for young care leavers over a 6-12 month period, ensuring greater well-being, autonomy and career prospects.

Volunteering Matters chosen as Charity of the Week by players of People’s Postcode Lottery

  Volunteering Matters is this week’s players of People’s Postcode Lottery Charity of the Week. We feature on their website here. Every year thanks to support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery, tens of thousands of vulnerable and disadvantaged people in communities across England, Scotland and Wales benefit from the support of Volunteering Matters. Our partnership … Continued
LifeLines Volunteers at their Volunteers' Week Celebration

Impact of Volunteering Matters ‘LifeLines’ celebrated in Brighton

LifeLines’, a volunteer-led programme which provides social activities for retired people in Brighton and Hove, celebrated its amazing volunteers at an awards reception to mark Volunteers’ Week. 30 Volunteers were treated to a tea at the Old Ship Hotel. Karen Bowlas, the project manager for ‘Lifelines’, said. “By celebrating our volunteers we are able to … Continued

Grandmentors programme wins National Mentoring Award

Volunteering Matter’s Grandmentors programme won a prestigious national award recognising its transformational work in mentoring young care leavers. The Grandmentors programme received the honour in the Third Sector category at the recent National Mentoring Awards, in recognition of the 1:1 support that Grandmentors provide young people leaving care. One of the key areas that impressed … Continued
RSVP

International Day of Older Persons

The 1st of October marks the International Day of Older Persons and we’d like to take the opportunity to celebrate the 8,700 older and retired people who share their time and talents each year by volunteering with us.

We’re challenging young people to start their revolution!

This month sees the launch of our brand new campaign to change young people’s perceptions of volunteering. Titled ' Revolution You ', our campaign aims to challenge preconceived notions of volunteering and encourage more young people to consider a gap year in the UK. 
Karen and Sarah

Taking Grandmentors to new places!

Both Stockton Council and Wiltshire Council will be teaming up with Volunteering Matters to launch Grandmentors in their area, providing new inter-generational mentoring to young people leaving care. 

Brighton Over 50s Showcase Artistic Flair!

Margaret is a retired secondary school Head of Art, and has has been teaching an art class as part of LifeLines for local people over 50 for almost 5 years. She shared some of the work and explained the theme of the most recent project!

Volunteer Expo Live 2022

The UK’s national Volunteering Show has landed! Volunteering Matters is delighted to be involved in Volunteer Expo Live, a national event that seeks to connect volunteers, organisations and the charity sector together under one roof in order to help introduce more people to the world of volunteering. Volunteer Expo Live, which is being hosted by … Continued

RSVP, Emma Thomas-Hancock, Director of Delivery

At Volunteering Matters our strategy is all about being ‘place based’ and how that impacts communities. The volunteer leaders and organisers of RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Programme) have been leading the way and championing this approach for over 30 years! They do this by leading and organising local place-based social action in communities across the … Continued

Work With Us: Natasha’s story

We asked Natasha Craike, Project Co-ordinator of Grandmentors Surrey, to tell us about what it feels like to work at Volunteering Matters. Natasha told us about her experience of being a working mum at Volunteering Matters. As a mum to an 18 month old baby I didn’t think that I could go back to work … Continued

The power of a relationship

Could our innovative intergenerational mentoring programme for care leavers become a new national norm? Our Head of National Programmes Gethyn Williams and Will Bibby, Programme Manager at Nesta gave their take.

Volunteering runs in the family!

This Mother’s Day we celebrated a member of our own staff and her daughter – who together show how a passion for volunteering can clearly run in the family!
RSVP

The changing face of volunteering in later life

Our Chief Executive Oonagh Aitken is a keynote speaker at the Volunteer Management Conference 2018. In advance she was asked to consider the changing face of volunteering in later life.

New Year, Volunteer!

Our Head of Communications Alison Harvie on how to get that New Year’s resolution off the page and into action.