Community volunteering
As well as specialised volunteering programmes such as Starting Blocks and York Children's University, York Cares designs and manages various annual community volunteering initiatives including:
- Team challenges, one-off projects to transform community buildings and urban green spaces
- Seasonal giving weeks, such as visiting the elderly and collecting for homeless people at Christmas
- Weekly programmes, such as the popular lunchtime Right to Read scheme in schools
- Business support, helping charities in need with professional expertise
Individual volunteering opportunities
York Cares also helps local community organisations through advertising any volunteering opportunities they may have. If you are looking for ways you can personally help then please look at our individual volunteering opportunities page.
Get involved!
To find out more about how your organisation can get involved in regular volunteering — or anything else about York Cares — just contact our dedicated team, based at the University of York. We would love to hear from you.
Call us ...
01904 323482
What they say
'It is very fulfilling...' » Show
'If other businesses are thinking of joining York Cares, I would tell them to go for it! It is a really welcome change of scenery for the staff, and you can really feel there is a difference being made to the community. You can see what York Cares wants to do, and it is very fulfilling to be a part of that.'
Kimberley Barton — Langleys Solicitors
'I would love to help out on another project like this.' » Show
'I like volunteering for outdoor/wildlife-promoting activities so I thought the York Cares Community Challenge sounded like a great event to dedicate my time to. I enjoyed working alongside the young and enthusiastic people from the local colleges/schools. I would love to help out on another project like this, to encourage people to enjoy nature and wildlife.'
Kirsten Brown — Food and Environment Research Agency
'Taking part in York Cares projects is a fantastic way for employers to put back into the community.' » Show
'For us, the best part of the project was the amount of new people visiting us. A lot of the companies who took part in the community challenge have asked to come back and work with St Nicks in future, so we have so many new volunteers. The amount of publicity that York Cares arranged for us was wonderful as well- the links they have built with the business community are excellent. They are really well organised and professional, and taking part in their projects is a fantastic way for employers to put back into the community. We have had some very positive comments from local people walking through the reserve, especially with the Melrosegate entrance and the new steps. I would absolutely recommend York Cares to other charitable organisations, and we would love to have them come back and do another project with us!'
John Brierley — St Nicholas Fields Reserve
'They really smooth the way for businesses.' » Show
'We are always trying to find ways to give back to the community and be charitable so we decided to take part in the Christmas Collections. It was really nice to know that we were giving to people who needed help. We gave the kinds of donations that they might not get very often, so that it would feel more like Christmas for them. We have full time jobs and many of the people here have children and other outside commitments, so it’s good to have the York Cares who make it easy to be charitable. They really smooth the way for businesses. We were given all the information we needed so we could choose which programmes we wanted to do. The range of programmes they do means that we can be flexible about what we take part in, and often we can fit the programmes in with our areas of expertise. We would definitely recommend York Cares to other businesses.'
Jill Gregory and Emily Gohl — Renovo
'York Cares is a very convenient way for businesses to give back to the community.' » Show
'I decided to join in with the Christmas parties because they sounded like fun. Our team was given the freedom to do what we wanted with the parties, so that we would enjoy it as well as the residents. It really does feel like you are making a difference to someone’s day with these things. It was lovely to meet these people, who really seemed to appreciate the chance to talk about their interests and their pasts to people who were interested. It was the first moment I really started to feel Christmassy. York Cares is a very convenient way for businesses to give back to the community. It was really easy to get involved, and the preparation for the party did not take long at all, it took up one day. I feel that the time commitment you give is far outweighed by what you get out of it. I have already recommended York Cares to several of my colleagues.'
Alistair Carr — The University of York
- You can join us
- York Cares makes volunteering easy for organisations of all sizes with a flexible, reliable and high-profile framework.
- Read more ...
- Click here to download a pdf of our brochure, which explains more about what we do — and feel free to pass it on to your friends!
- York Children's University
- Your volunteers can help disadvantaged children from York primary schools learn key life skills such as finance or cookery — or you can deliver your own sponsored programme.
- Starting Blocks
- Through this nationally-acclaimed, York-based programme you can provide supported work placements and skills workshops for care leavers aged 16-18.
- Young York Cares
- Your volunteers can help us to engage over 1000 young people each year from schools, further and higher education in inspirational community projects around York.