Here at UNLH we welcome the opportunity to engage local residents in volunteering activities within the Library Hub. We offer a warm, safe and welcoming environment and you can volunteer for a short time or join our long term team of volunteers.
Volunteering Opportunities:
1. Trustees. Becoming a UNLT Trustee is a great opportunity to contribute your knowledge and experience to an organisation that really makes a difference to the local community, libraries and communities more broadly through our outreach work across London. (Visit the Trustee recruitment page)
2. Hub café hosts to serve light refreshments, weekdays. Hub café hosts will also help people and connect them to activities and services in the Library Hub and beyond.
3. English tutor (adults)
Offer one-to-one communication and reading support to learners on our English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programme in the library hub
Teach conversation classes and English classes in the library hub and local schools
4. Literacy & numeracy support for children aged 5-8 at the library hub.
If you are interested in volunteering at UNLH in the above roles, please complete this online form.
Please now complete our Volunteer Equality & Diversity Monitoring Form
Benefits of volunteering
Helping your community
Volunteering has a real positive effect on the way the services can be delivered at UNLH, helping us to provide a far broader range of activities to the community that would otherwise not be feasible. The passion of the Library Hub volunteers contributes to a welcoming environment to those in the community. Libraries are used by a huge number of people including parents with young children, students, and people learning new skills. Libraries are now key in providing community services allowing people to make connections with each other, share ideas and build partnerships. The Library Hub also helps aid the work of charities in the area who use the Library Hub as a central point of operations including that of the ESOL programme.
Health and Wellbeing
Studies have identified that helping others can increases happiness, reduce depression and can improve both our mental and physical health. Such improvements can benefit you, your family, and your community. Volunteering can help provide purpose within a cause where you can see the impact on the community directly helping to make you feel more accomplished.
Studies have found that volunteering can make you feel more ‘time affluent’. This is due to giving your time to others can make you feel that you’ve accomplished a lot. The London School of Economics has even found volunteering can even make you more loving as it helps with building empathy, strengthening social bonds and making you smile.
Lastly, variety is the spice of life and meeting people from a range of backgrounds can help improve your wellbeing and other a new perspective on life.
Upskilling
Volunteering can help you learn new skills, gain experience and take on a new challenge. At UNLH we encourage our volunteer team to take the lead on things which interest them- this could be using their existing skills to take responsibility for a regular task, running an activity which they’ve always wanted to try or delving into something completely new.
Volunteering is a great way to develop skills when looking for a new career and can help to keep you active when you do have a bit more time on your hands. Volunteering provides a welcoming environment where you can learn these skills at your own pace without any pressure. The Hub provides great transferrable skills that employers find invaluable. For example, the ability to interact with members of the public, problem solving abilities and even event organisation skills. Volunteering helps build confidence in your abilities which can be useful in all aspects of life. We are introducing different roles that allow volunteers to best use their skills and the library is also open to creating new roles if suggested.
Social Inclusion
It’s a great opportunity to meet new people, to network with like-minded individuals and to get involved with your wider community. Having a shared goal to work towards is the perfect way to bring people together from different backgrounds. Whether you have just moved to the area or lived here all your life and just want to get to know more people, volunteering could be perfect for you. As part of the Library Hub ethos of ‘equality, diversity and social inclusion’, these principles lie at the heart of how we work, communicate, support and deliver services to our community.