Explore the latest volunteering opportunities, both locally and online. We'll update these opportunities regularly, so keep checking back to view the newest!
These can be used towards your RED Award activities. Not signed up? Find out more and register for the RED Award.
*Please note, there are University's policy regarding work and study for full-time students applies to volunteering. You can find out more about the limitations of this on our work and study page.
| Opportunity | What will you be doing? | Online or in-person? | Region | Time commitment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coachbright | Volunteer to support schoolchildren from disadvantaged backgrounds as a tutor. | Online due to COVID-19 | National | Minimum of 12 weeks (1 hour per week) |
| English teaching with Reading Refugee Support Group | Help refugees to practice and learn English on a one-to-one basis. | Online | Reading | 10 weeks |
| Cancer Research UK Shop Volunteer |
Cancer Research UK are looking for a shop volunteer to assist in the Broad St store. This role includes tasks such as serving customers, sorting through donations and cleaning the store etc. |
In-person | Local (Broad St, Reading) | Dependent on availability |
| Thames Valley Police Vocalists Volunteers |
Thames Valley Police Vocals choir that performs at events including their Open Day, carol concerts and Road Death Memorial Service. They are looking for volunteers to join the choir at events and Saturday morning rehearsals. |
In-person | National | Varied |
| NHS Volunteer Responder | The NHS are recruiting volunteer responders to help secure the NHS and social care sector during COVID-19. There are varying roles available (listed on application website). |
In- person | National | Currently ongoing |
| FoodCycle Volunteer | FoodCycle provides free, nutritious takeaway meals to those in the community who needs it. FoodCycle volunteer roles include cooking, collecting or hosting. |
In-person | National | No set hours |
| Girl Guiding Volunteer | A girl guiding volunteer will volunteer with girls at unit meetings every week. Volunteers can choose to work with Rainbows, Brownies, Guides or Rangers. |
In-person | National | Usually at least one hour a week |
| Museums Partnership Reading (The MERL & Reading Museum) |
The Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL) and Reading Museum aim to offer volunteering opportunities to the local community to improve wellbeing, connect people to their personal histories and identities, and get to know more about Reading's rich cultural heritage. |
In-person | Reading | Dependent on role. |
| Ignite Hubs Volunteer | Code Hub teaches coding to children aged 7-18 years old to provide children and young people with the tools and schools needed to excel in school and life. |
Online |
National | 1-3 hours a week throughout term time |
| Numberfit mixes math education with sport, story, music and fun to create empowering and equal access learning experiences. The require a volunteer videographer/ photographer to assist in launching new offerings and developing new resources for use in schools and homes. | Online | National | Hours flexible around volunteer |
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CIRWC provides a safe environment for women and their children in the community to relax, eat, learn creative skills and have a chat. They require volunteers (female only) to help teach others creative skills or be there to befriend others. Full training is provided. |
In-person | Reading | A few hours per week, ideally on a regular basis. |
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Thames Hospice is a local charity that provides expert care for those in East Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire living with life-limiting illnesses. Thames Hospice require retail volunteers to help run their charity shop. |
In-person | Reading |
A few hours a week, dependent on volunteer availability. |
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| Me2 Club is a charity who support children with additional needs and disabilities in the Wokingham and Reading Boroughs attending mainstreams activities such as uniform groups, sports clubs and drama groups. This is achieved by matching a child with a 1-1 volunteer who can support them throughout such activities. |
In-person | Reading |
1-2 hours a week. 8 hours of training required also. |
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| RSPB Volunteer | RSPB offer a wide range of volunteering opportunities dependent on the requirements of your local center. |
In-person | National | Dependent on role |
| Zooniverse Volunteer | Zooniverse offers a few different volunteering roles, these include: • Zooniverse project volunteer This role includes classifying the data of various research projects, there are plenty of different projects on the website available. • Zooniverse beta tester This involves working through classifications on the beta project to check that it works, checking for any bugs, and filling out a questionnaire at the end. • Zooniverse project moderator Project moderators help moderate discussions and act as a point of contact for the project. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| Project Implicit | You will be required to assist in psychological research on thoughts and feelings by taking an Implicit Association Test (IAT) from a list of various topics. |
Online | National | No set hours, each test takes 10-15 minutes |
| Be My Eyes Volunteer | You will be required to provide virtual assistance to the visually impaired through the ‘Be My Eyes’ app. This app allows a visually impaired individual to live video call a volunteer for help with tasks such as: checking expiry dates, distinguishing colors, reading instructions, navigating surroundings. |
Online | National | No set hours |
| Translate Without Borders volunteer | You will be required to be fluent in one other language, other than your native language. There is various engaging projects where translating assistance is required – further information on these projects is available on their website. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| LibriVox Volunteer | This role required reading and recording chapters of books within the public domain (books no longer under copyright) and make them available for free on the internet. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| Missing Maps Volunteer | This role requires you to use OpenStreetMap to help map areas where humanitarian organizations are trying to meet the needs of vulnerable people. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| Smithsonian Digital Volunteer | This role involves using transcription to make historical documents and biodiversity data more available. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| UN volunteer | UN volunteering offers lots of different online volunteering opportunities depending on your skills. These skills may range from translation, writing and editing, technology development, research, art and design etc. There is a wide variety in the UN volunteering opportunities available, for example: conducting online English classes for youth in West Bengal, software developers for school management systems |
Online | International | Weekly hours vary with each volunteer opportunity |
| ZSL Volunteer | Supporting ZSL conservation work by tagging animals seen in live videos and images provided by ZSL. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| Loving Hands volunteer | Using knitting, sewing and crocheting skills to craft items to donate to charities and groups all over the world. There are various Loving Hands groups across the UK, more information on this is available on the website. |
Online | National | No set hours |
| Write On volunteer | This volunteer opportunities involves writing to those in need. There are several different types of Write On campaigns to get involved, for example: • ‘Love for the Elderly’ is a group dedicated to writing kind letters to perhaps lonely, elderly individuals • ‘Braid Mission’ is a program dedicated to sending cards to local group homes and facilities that house youth who are separated from their loved ones. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| Trussell Trust foodbank volunteer | Local foodbanks across the nation are requiring volunteers to: sort and pack food donations in their warehouses, collecting donations from supermarkets,delivering food to those in greatest need |
In-person | National | Hours may vary between foodbanks |
| Volunteer West Berkshire | Providing help to those most vulnerable in the local community during Covid-19, this includes tasks such as: delivering essential items, poviding transport to appointments. There are similar volunteer schemes available in most areas nationwide, however, tasks may slightly vary. |
In-person | Local - West Berkshire | Hours dependent on individual availability |
| Reach Volunteering | Reach volunteering will match individuals with specialist professional skills, such as in IT, to charities requiring their help on either short-term projects or ongoing projects. |
Either | National | Hours vary with each volunteering project |
| Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK | This is another organization that partners up volunteers to their local community aid group. Each group has varying volunteering tasks that they coordinate to help their neighbors who require assistance. | Either | National | No set hours |
| School in The Clouds volunteer | Providing support to deprived children in India, Colombia, Mexico and Greenland. Volunteers will educate, read stories, sing songs and chat to these children over skype. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| eBird volunteer | Assisting in global bird research by simply tracking your bird sighting on the eBird website - contributing to a community network of worldwide birdwatchers. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| Amnesty Decoders volunteer | Using your device to sift through pictures, information and documents to help expose human right violations. There are various projects available on their website. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| 7 Cups volunteer | 7 Cups listeners offer emotional support to those that need it via online chat by simply listening to their personal troubles. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| VocaliD volunteer | VocaliD volunteers record personal voice notes for VocaliD to enhance their research in building unique digital voices to uplift those who rely on assistive technology, and to diversify the voices they hear. | Online | International (requires fluency in English) | No set hours |
| Project Gutenberg volunteer | Volunteers assist in proofreading eBooks prior to their publication. | Online | International | No set hours |
| Crisis Text Line volunteer | Provide online support for those in a crisis over text. Volunteers aid those texting the crisis text line through active listening, collaborative problem solving and safety planning. |
Online | National | 2-4 hours per week, 200 hours in total |
| Covid Call volunteer | Covid Call volunteers offer a free telephone service to aid those in their community who are self-isolating. This could be aiding them in finding out how they may access food supplies or just having a friendly chat. |
Online | National | Volunteers can sign up to shifts, dependent on their availability |
| American Cancer Society virtual volunteer | You will work alongside team members to complete a ‘Relay for Life’ - a virtual online relay completed using avatars in the ‘Second Life’ 3D virtual world. This virtual event raises money for the American Cancer Society. |
Online | National | No set hours |
| Virtual camp volunteer | There are several virtual camp volunteer projects you can join from home available to suit your interests, including: personal development, environment, languages and arts and crafts. |
Online | International | Varies depending on chosen project |
| TED Talk Translator | TED Translators are a community of volunteers who subtitle TED talks so that the talks may reach a global audience. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| Project Plumage | Help to extract colour information to answer key questions about bird colour evolution by analyzing photographed museum specimens. |
Online | National | No set hours |
| Maturity of Baby Sounds volunteer | Help researchers to understand the early stages of language learning by classifying short recordings of babies’ speech sounds. |
Online | National | No set hours |
| Take action for insects volunteer | Help The Wildlife Trusts in taking action for insects and see how you can practically help the insects in your own home and garden! | Online | National | No set hours |
| Run, Herring, Run! volunteer | Help count emigrating herring through online footage to help researchers further understand this threatened fish species. |
Online | National | No set hours |
| Anti-slavery Manuscripts Transcriber | Help to turn handwritten correspondence between anti-slavery activist in the 19th century into text that can be more easily understood for researchers. |
Online | National | No set hours |
| Samaritan listening volunteer | As a listening volunteer you’ll answer calls and messages from people who really need someone to talk to. You’ll be based in one of 201 branches in the UK. |
In-person | National | Hours dependent on volunteer availabilty |
| Re-action volunteer | For one week, with a small group of participants, you will be given the tools via video call to help those in your community who need it the most. The |
Online | International | One week (Monday - Friday) |
| F cancer vounteer | Become a remote F cancer volunteer and help support charities fighting cancer. You can join a variety of projects to help from website design to social media. |
Online | National | Vary depending on project |
| CHD Living volunteer | ‘Adopt a Grandparent’ campaign partners an individual with an elderly in CHD Living Home, to provide them with company through having phone/video calls and sending photos/postcards/letter via post or email. |
Online | International | No set hours |
| YUoR Community Champions | Full details can be found on our Community Champion webpages. | Phone/ online | Supporting Reading are (but can be done remotely) | No set hours |
| Student Minds | One in three students report clinical levels of psychological distress, with students facing academic, social and financial challenges. We believe it does not need to be this way, all students and members of the university community should be able to thrive at university. Join us and become part of a passionate and innovative team working hard to transform the state of student mental health. |
Both | National | Vary depending on role |
| Starting Point | Starting Point provides mentoring and creates opportunities for young people in the Reading area. The young people are predominantly vulnerable or facing disadvantage, not in education, employment, or training, or are at risk of leaving education early/being excluded. By partnering with the local community, we match each young person to a mentor who is best suited to them. The mentor provides consistent and reliable support, helping the young person towards a brighter and more hopeful future whilst celebrating small steps along the way. |
In-person | Reading area | Vary depending on role |