Volunteering

Current opportunities

Wellbeing group volunteers support the group members to participate in a fun and active programme that promotes health and wellbeing, through activities such as arts and crafts, mindfulness and sports. We run two weekly Wellbeing groups, on Tuesdays 1.00 – 3.00pm and Fridays 10.30am – 12.30pm.

Social group volunteers support young people and adults to take part in various social activities, like bowling, trampolining or mini golf. The groups run weekly, on weekday evenings and on Saturday afternoon.

Job club volunteers assist members to look for work. The members focus on building their confidence, practising team work and communication skills, CV-writing, job searching, completing job applications and working on job interview techniques. The Job clubs meet on Mondays and Tuesdays, 10am – 1.30pm.

social enterprise volunteers are involved in our micro social enterprise Nourishing People, that sells snacks and provides a trainee programme for members. Volunteers support trainees in different business-related tasks, such as sending emails, researching clients, stock take and selling the snacks. Nourishing People runs Wednesday to Friday 10.00am – 3.00pm.

Other opportunities

Sometimes we also offer other volunteer roles, for example in social media, marketing, videography, event planning and admin. If you are looking for a specific volunteer role, please get in touch.

“I love volunteering at People Matters, we have so much fun and I am enjoying getting to know the members more and more each week. I have developed my confidence, social skills and creativity through volunteering. There is a strong sense of community and it is a very friendly environment. It is lovely being part of such a welcoming group of people.” Stephanie – Social group volunteer

Work experience and placements

We are committed to providing work experience and placement opportunities for students (year 12 through to postgraduate) – please bear in mind that these opportunities are limited. Contact us on 0113 2346896 or info@peoplemattersleeds.co.uk for more information.

Successful volunteers will be asked to provide two references and to complete a DBS-check, paid for by People Matters. Please note, we cannot always guarantee a suitable role.

Work Experience Blog from Mila

We are very proud of our link with Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) in Hämeenlinna, Finland and now offer their social work students international placement opportunities.

“When I started my placement at People Matters in August, I was new to the UK and I had no idea how much I would experience during these couple months. I came here to learn as much as possible not only about organisational work but also about the UK’s service system. The tasks I have done have supported creating a picture of them: Thank you for all the opportunities to get to know different parts of the work in People Matters and for arranging visits to other services. It has been a great pleasure to be able to see the contrast between them. This has helped me to come to a better understanding of what type of work I would be interested in doing in the future.

I have heard from so many people here that people in Leeds are very welcoming and helpful and after being here I can agree with that 100%. Both the staff and members have taught me a lot and it is amazing how welcome I have felt to every part of the work of People Matters: For example, even though I have been new to every group that I have visited, it hasn’t shown in any way and everyone that I have interviewed has been surprisingly open about their experiences. It feels great that people have felt secure enough to share their stories with me and that the staff has been able to rely on me to do that. My placement has included a lot of interviewing which has been a great way to get to know people and what kind of effect the work of People Matters really has on them. It has also been good practice for maybe the most important project for me in University: Thesis, which at least in our studies consists of research and interviews. I have interviewed both members and staff and it has been a nice chance to get to know a little about the wellbeing of the staff too, because wellbeing at work is one part of our studies.

Life at the office is sometimes very busy and since the Finnish people are known to be quite reserved and shy, it has been a very welcome challenge for me to learn how to gain courage to go and say what I have to say. The tasks and responsibilities I had and the way nobody judged me but helped me with my English got me feeling more and more comfortable speaking it and improve my English skills in general – So a big thanks for that too!”