Youth Club Volunteer

CARAS-Volunteer-Application-Form

About CARAS: Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (CARAS) is a charity that supports refugees and people seeking asylum who live in south London. We offer a range of individual and group support to improve the holistic wellbeing of people who have a background of forced migration, providing them with tools to build lives filled with value, meaning and purpose in the UK.

Our activities for young people currently include: ESOL classes (English for Speakers of Other Languages), study group, youth club, swimming lessons and football.

About Youth Club: Youth Club is a place for young people aged 14-19 to come and play games, learn new skills, make and strengthen friendships and build a sense of belonging. Regular activities include classic youth club games such as table tennis, pool, foosball, board and card games. We also work in partnership with a range of organisations to run a rich programme of workshops within our youth club.

Some of these have included creative visual arts, drama, music and workshops on rights and entitlements of young asylum seekers. We also cook a hot meal from time to time and offer a range of snacks each week. Our casework team are also on-site to support young people with a range of advice and signposting needs, usually by-appointment.

Youth club takes place at Furzedown Youth Centre. Welham Rd, London SW16 6TJ
.

About the role: As a Youth Club volunteer, you would be helping young people to feel welcome, join in with activities and be a great role model.

Schedule: Youth Club takes place every Wednesday at 6.00-8.00pm. We ask for a commitment of at least 2 sessions per month for a minimum of 6 months.

• To attend and contribute to volunteer de-briefs which occur 15 minutes after each session.
• To act as a positive role model and set standards of behaviour when volunteering with young people.
• To encourage and inspire young people to reach their full potential.
• To assist young people to both recognise and celebrate their achievements.
• To challenge young peoples’ negative attitudes and behaviour in an appropriate manner.
• To adhere to CARAS Child Protection procedures, Confidentiality policy, Health & Safety policy, Equal Opportunities policy and all other policies as relevant.

• To be 18 years or older;
• To be non-judgemental and able to engage with people from diverse cultural backgrounds;
• To be reliable and punctual;
• Excellent communication skills, especially with people with varying levels of English;
• The ability to volunteer on Wednesday evenings for a minimum of six months;
• Current resident of the UK;
• Able to provide five years’ worth of addresses, and willing to undergo a DBS check;
• Able to attend compulsory volunteer induction training (online) general and safeguarding prior to the start of role

Volunteer induction training currently takes place online once a month on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evenings from 6pm – 8pm. we offer the same trainings on Tuesday and Wednesday daytimes online between 12noon – 2pm once every 3 months.

Your availability to attend 1 general and 1 safeguarding online training session at these times within 3 months of your application would be a prerequisite of being accepted as a volunteer at CARAS.

• Knowledge of community languages, such as (including Arabic, Tigrinya, Amharic, Pashto, Dari, Farsi, Kurdish, Somali and Spanish).

To apply for this opportunity, download and complete the CARAS volunteer application form from the CARAS website using this volunteer role description to inform your answers. Email your completed form to Mirza at  with email subject header “Youth Club Volunteer”.

Successful applicants will have an informal meeting with a member of the CARAS Youth staff team and a community member. These meetings will be on a rolling basis so apply ASAP!