Telephone: 02920 228040 |admin@sfwales.org
Volunteer
View Our Current Roles on Volunteering Wales
We are looking for people to fill all sorts of volunteering roles at the moment and you can view the details of each role at Volunteering Wales.
The roles we are looking to fill include:
Finance Administrators
This role involves basic bookkeeping duties, invoicing, petty cash handling and general office work. We are looking for two types of people, a team leader who wants to volunteer long term on a regular basis. This would be for half a day to a day a week. We are also looking for people who can help out regularly or irregularly so that we can have a small team able to help with finance tasks.
Data Protection Project Manager
We are looking for someone who can go through our existing processes and procedures and ensure that we are compliant with the GDPR. This role would be working on conjunction with our administrator and C.E.O. and would suit someone with relevant experience and office skills. We are a small charity so the project is not enormous, however it would be helpful to have someone able to focus exclusively on this. This could be a short term opportunity as the goal would be for the volunteer to do themselves out of a job! Of course, anyone willing to take this on would be able to pick up other projects in the future should they so wish.
Event Coordinator
We run regular events at Samye Foundation Wales and we need a volunteer who can take a lead role in planning, organising and setting up these events to ensure they go as smoothly as possible.
Tea Room Volunteers
We have a beautiful Tibetan Tea Room but not enough people who want to staff it to keep it open. We have a chicken and egg situation, until we have the tea room open at predictable times, it's hard to advertise it and get people to make use of it. We're looking for people who'd like to volunteer regularly and preferably live in or near enough to Canton that they can be here without too much trouble. The Tea Room could be open around lunchtime Mon-Sun and in the evenings on weekdays when there are courses and visitors. If you're interested and have the patience to be there just in case while we build traffic, you could really help us out. Other tasks that volunteers can do can be taken in to the Tea Room and there's a good internet connection in all of our buildings so you won't have to twiddle your thumbs if there aren't any tea (or coffee) drinkers when you're in. We'll be serving simple meals and snacks as well.
Other Volunteers
We also need gardeners, carpenters/joiners, office administrators and people to work help during events.
As an organisation we rely heavily on volunteers and in order for the centre to run, we rely on the support, commitment and time given by all of our volunteers.
If you are interested in volunteering at the centre, please fill in the SFW Volunteer Application Form Cardiff and send it to us at: admin@sfwales.org or alternatively, post the form to us at:
Samye Foundation Wales
250 Cowbridge Road East
Canton
Cardiff
CF5 1GZ
As we are members of a number of voluntary associations, we can offer training courses to volunteers if they wish to develop particular skills. Our aim as a social enterprise is to develop the skills of volunteers.
We also work with Spice Time Credits which you can read more about here: if you volunteer with us we offer time credits to those who would like to be part of the scheme. Time credits can be spent in a variety of places such as leisure centres, trampoline parks, going to see a show and many more. Find out more here Spice Time.
Social Media
We always need help handing and building up our social media presence. We mainly use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest but are open to suggestions too!
Gardening
We have a lovely garden around the back of the centre in Cardiff, we welcome anyone who likes to garden to volunteer with us - no need to be an expert! We also have plants around the front and lots of weeding to do!
Photography
Whether it be taking photos at courses, for the website, or for a blog we always need help from people who are handy with a camera. If you can film events, that'd be great too!
Cleaning
Cleaning is something we always need help with, whether it be washing up, cleaning cupboards, dusting, watering the plants, or taking towels and blankets home to be washed. The slightest help will be appreciated.
Marketing
We are always trying to get more people to join us on our courses. If you have marketing techniques at your disposal, complete with the gift of the gab, you are most welcome to help us out!
Why volunteer?
Volunteering appeals to people for a number of reasons. It's a great way to learn new skills or practice skills you don't get to use in your existing job. You're also giving back to your community and that's always something that feels good.
I'm looking for work. Do you accept short term volunteers?
At Samye Foundation Wales, we want to support our volunteers and help them get what they'd like from the experience. If you're looking for work and want to improve your CV by gaining relevant experience or showing that you're still active, while you're looking, that's fine. We just ask that you let us know so that we can help you achieve your goals while you help us with ours.
I'm not available every day, is that a problem?
Absolutely not, we need people for various roles during the day, the early evening and at weekends. We try to focus our volunteers on specific tasks that they are comfortable with and interested in. We have lots of things that need doing and we're looking for people who can get to grips with a project but we won't give you more work to do than you have time for. We don't have a minimum commitment for volunteers though it's helpful if people can give at least a couple of hours fairly regularly.
Do you provide training?
Yes, we can provide training for our volunteers through third sector organisations and in house. For volunteers who have made a significant commitment in time and effort, we'll try and find a place for them on one of our Mindfulness courses (it's not a requirement that you practice Mindfulness to volunteer with us though).
I'm a student and need to volunteer during term time, is that possible?
We would love to hear from students who want to volunteer with us. We're happy to accept volunteers whose time with us will be limited for some reason and that includes students. The variety of tasks we have available is substantial so whether you are studying marketing, business, or textile design, we have something you can help with.
Where can I find out about specific roles you're looking to fill?
We advertise all our volunteer roles through Volunteering Wales and you can see everything we currently have advertised here.
That doesn't mean we don't need other skills though, we try to keep our roles up to date but that's almost a full volunteer role in itself! We need people to help with social media, marketing, copy-writing, finance, gardening, running our tea room, helping during events, cleaning, video and sound production, advertising, applying for grants, going to exhibitions, creating leaflets, designing t-shirts and much more.
Don't be afraid to approach us if you think you can help out, the roles we advertise are just guidelines really. We'd love to have a YouTube channel with some great content on it. We'd love to have someone creating great posters for us. It'd be fantastic to have some people who want to help organise our garden improvement project or apply for grants for us. We also need more than one person for some roles, so please don't be put off because you think we'll have filled a vacancy. If you reach out, we'll be happy to talk to you about our most up to date requirements.
Testimonials
Working here has changed my life for the better. Everyone is so kind, understanding and friendly. You get to learn so much and meet people from all walks of life.
- Louise Tribble
I like volunteering for Samye because every time I go in there is a nice smile and warm welcome as well as the friendly environment.
- Feyza Francis