I'm a volunteer tutor with action tutoring. It's largely great. The kids are very enthusiastic and it can be very rewarding if a bit exhausting but it's not very many hours a week. The organisation is amazingly supportive and provides all the resources and training as well as optional extra training if you want to take them up on it.
I volunteered once about five years ago. It wasn't a good experience for me. It was in a charity shop but there was so much pressure and stress. People would come up to me and ask questions or just do general chit chat which I found I was unable to cope with. Caused a lot of my health issues to trigger and resulted in panic and anxiety attack. It's a shame as I did enjoy sorting through the stuff and putting it on shelves, but my health made it impossible to stay there. If you aren't overly anxious talking and being around people then you'd probably be ok.
I had a volunteer placement arranged for me by my mental health advisor in 2019 at the British Heart Foundation warehouse. Although it was only four hours a week, it was very physically demanding. I enjoyed it and met several unusual interesting people. After six months I had to give it up due to illness.
Outside the pandemic I do. Waiting for COVID levels to drop, so I can go back.
I work full time, but also do an odd Saturday morning volunteer shift in the local community library. We are one of those little village libraries the community didn't want to give up when the council made the cuts. It's a compromise deal. The council have us connected into the county library system and give us the computers and books. We can order anything people want in from the County library network. We provide premises and volunteers to staff it.
It's great. There some people who love to come to us rather than go to the nearest town. We have time the paid staff in town don't to have a chat, help them find good reads which suit them, order books for them etc. For some older people it's their twice weekly social connection. Plus we aren't strict about charges and fines.
It's a lovely opportunity to give a bit back in an environment I like.
