V-Bite

22nd November 2010 Hi Everyone VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES We have over 250 volunteering opportunities registered with us of which most recruit all year round. This week we registered the following new volunteering placements with us:

1) Administration Support Volunteer with The Alzheimer's Society (555) The Alzheimer’s Society works to improve the lives of people living with dementia. The Alzheimer's Society is a membership organisation and many of its members have personal experience of dementia, as carers, health professionals or people with dementia themselves, and their experiences help to inform the work of the organisation. You will provide administrative support to staff involved with the delivery of services and other essential activities at the project's very lively and busy office. You will be the first point of contact for visitors, answer telephone calls, help to plan and organise meetings, support data collection activities and other general office duties. 2) Garden DIY Volunteer with Brighton & Hove Food Partnership (556) This is a great opportunity for a volunteer to use and develop their maintenance skills while helping a local community project. The project manage a community fruit and vegetable plot in Preston Park with the help of a group of volunteers. The garden aims to inspire and educate local residents about the benefits and beauty of growing your own produce. You will help with occasional minor maintenance tasks that arise at the garden, particularly helping to create weatherproof signage and other small carpentry jobs such as fence or gate repair and helping to make raised beds.

3) Groundwork Solent have 2 volunteering opportunities: Groundwork Solent is an environmental charity that supports local communities in need, working with partners to help improve the quality of people’s lives, their prospects and potential. The project works with people, in their own places for social, environmental and economical prosperity. They help communities to get involved in their own local area. They are able to help make practical projects happen, from consultation and bid writing, to landscape design and implementation. They aim to enable people to make a positive impact on their own lives and their environment.

a) Garden Volunteer (550)

The project is working with community groups across Brighton & Hove to create fun games events where local people can get to know each other better and feel part of a stronger community. It needs volunteers to help; come up with ideas, run events & activities, take photographs and videos, be stewards for big events, record scores and handout participation prizes and write up the events. The project is looking to build a database of people who can get involved in the events as they take place. So you could volunteer for just one event or for lots of them.

b) Games Ambassadors (551)

Games Ambassadors are needed to support the project's Brighton & Hove based events co-ordinator. There will be a range of tasks to get involved in from planning events & activities, writing articles and the some admin and reporting. You need to be able to commit to attending planning meetings in the office and to going out to events at the weekends and evenings.

4) PR/Admin Assistant with The Bhopal Medical Appeal (557) The Bhopal Medical Appeal was launched in 1994, when a man from Bhopal came to the UK to tell whoever would listen about the terrible condition of the still suffering victims of the Union Carbide gas disaster. Those who met him learned that after ten years, the survivors had received no meaningful medical help. The survivors realised that they must help themselves, because nobody else would. They were joined in the UK by a few individuals who started the Bhopal Medical Appeal (BMA). They were in turn joined in this effort by other like-minded people and the free, award-winning Sambhavna Clinic dreamt of by so many became a reality in 1995, based in the heart of the most seriously-affected communities in Bhopal.

You will be involved in the following areas: Distributing / marketing BMA news across all forms of media; Online social media / networking; Updating / adding to our press contacts and other office administration as needed.

NOW RECRUITING! Projects registered with us either recruit volunteers all year round or at particular times of the year. The following projects have been in touch with us recently to advise that they are currently recruiting:

1) Information and Advice Volunteer with MIND Resource Room (114) Mind Resource Room Project is an information and advice project based in Mill View Psychiatric hospital. It offers impartial independent advice & info on a range of issues such as diagnosis, medication, employment, local services and legal rights. It also has computers that clients can use to access the Internet, etc. The Resource Room is primarily for inpatients who can come in for a quiet space away from the wards or to have a cuppa and a chat. Volunteers support the safe & efficient running of the Resource Room (RR). Volunteers offer general support to clients - this includes listening, making tea, helping people use the Internet, write letters and find basic information. There is always an experienced paid worker who will undertake the more in-depth advice and info work. NOTE: Volunteer recruitment is generally once a year: next recruitment from 22/11/10, application closing date, 10th Dec, shortlisting 13th Dec, interviewing 20th/22nd Dec.

2) Day Centre Volunteer with Care Co-ops Life Opportunities (251) Care Co-ops Life Opportunities Service offers structured therapeutic group sessions, supporting adults with mental health and learning difficulties as part of their weekly routine. The group program supports meaningful occupation social inclusion and mental health recovery. These sessions/courses include: art, computer and IT skills, Organic gardening and Farming and social skills. Volunteers are needed to assist group leaders to facilitate various timetabled activities, in a creative learning environment. As well as supporting group work Volunteers will be working on a one-to-one basis with individual service-users. Essentially, volunteers assist in the running of a day centre e.g. supporting the project's course tutors in running a range of activity groups and work with

service users on a 1:1 basis The centre organises a wide range of groups from art, computers, photography, DIY, social skills, music, film-making to men groups, women's drop-in and are keen to utilise the skills of volunteers. The project holds 4 'Volunteer Selection Days’ annually. The next one is on Monday 30th November 2010 - places need to be booked via Project V.

To get brief details of these opportunities (and all those we have registered), use the ‘Opportunity Search’ facility on our website: www.sussexstudent.com/volunteering/ Then if you wish to find out more about how you can get involved in any of the opportunities, contact us on projectv@sussex.ac.uk to make an appointment to register with us.

STUDENTS’ UNION AGM

Please note the Students’ Union AGM which was due to take place last Tuesday, has had to be postponed until tomorrow, Tuesday 23rd @ 1.30pm, Mandela Hall.

This is the most important meeting in the Students’ Union calendar and is the best chance for you to steer the direction of the Union and its campaigns. The AGM also gives students a chance to scrutinise the Union's budget, and hold Full-Time Officers and Union Council to account. Even if you don't get involved with the Union much during the rest of the year, the AGM is your opportunity to step up, have your say, and help direct the future of your Union.

For more information, go to http://www.sussexstudent.com/

Please try to make it along to the AGM. PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH! For those of you who have registered with us (returned your Project V Placement Joining Form) please don’t forget to let us know if you have started volunteering. You just need to e-mail projectv@sussex.ac.uk and let us know what project you are volunteering with, what date you started volunteering and how many hours approximately you are volunteering each week.

Also, if we have contacted you by e-mail to advise you that we have passed on your contact details to the project that you wish to volunteer with, AND you have already waited 7 working days to hear back from them, but have not heard anything, please remember to let us know so that we can chase it up. THANK YOU. That’s all for this week. Any questions, comments, concerns, just get in touch. Michaela Rossmann and Naomi Ashman Volunteering Manager & Volunteer Placement Co-ordinator Project V, Students’ Union Activities Centre 1st Floor, Falmer House University of Sussex projectv@sussex.ac.uk www.sussexstudent.com/volunteering (01273) 873387 The aim of V-Bite is to keep you up to date with volunteering opportunities (new ones come in every week) and to let you know about anything else related to volunteering that we think you may wish to know about. If you would like to be unsubscribed from this mailing list, please e-mail projectv@sussex.ac.uk