By giving us the gift of your time, you make an incredible contribution to our Cornish charity’s continued running and our two hospices. Volunteering is always rewarding and being part of a team of like-minded people is one of the many rewards of getting involved.
You may already have skills you can use, or you may be looking to try something new to improve your skills and increase your confidence. We provide an induction, relevant training and on- going support for all our volunteers. Whatever you’re looking for, we aim to provide interesting and creative volunteer opportunities to let you shine.
We have a variety of volunteer roles available, so please read on to see the roles that volunteers play in our hospices, shops, gardens, warehouses and offices. If you cannot give a regular commitment, don’t worry – we are flexible about the commitment needed and have regular ad-hoc events and projects that could suit you better.
Our reception volunteers at St Julia’s Hospice and Mount Edgcumbe Hospice provide a reassuring, warm welcome to all visitors at our hospices and play a vital role in ensuring that visitors feel cared about, comfortable and relaxed.
You’ll be supporting the team at our in-patient units by helping visitors familiarise themselves with our hospices, answering and directing phone calls, accepting donations, post and parcels and helping with some administration work. This role involves typically a weekly or fortnightly commitment, with a morning, afternoon or evening shift.
To find out more, click the button below to see the full volunteer role description.
Our ward volunteers at St Julia’s Hospice and Mount Edgcumbe Hospice help create a calm, relaxed environment for our patients and families and play a vital role in ensuring that visitors feel cared about, comfortable and relaxed.
You’ll be supporting the team at our in-patient units by helping with the provision of refreshments for patients and their visitors, serving our patients their meals and spending time with patients listening to them and providing comfort as needed.
You’ll also care for flowers in patient rooms and around the hospice and keep our shared ward areas ready for use.
This role typically involves a weekly or fortnightly commitment, with a morning, afternoon or evening shift.
To find out more, click the button below to see the key volunteer responsibilities, skills and qualities for this role.
Our gardens play an important part in the life of our hospices and are used by our patients and their families for recreation and contemplation purposes, to help spiritual and mental well-being and as a place to enjoy nature and to sit and reflect.
As a Hospice Garden Volunteer you’ll be working alongside our on-site Maintenance team to keep our gardens beautiful, clean and tidy for everyone to enjoy. You could be weeding, pruning, planting or clearing areas for new projects, each time you volunteer will be different.
This role is flexible but volunteers usually garden for 2 or 3 hours at a time, between 9 am and 4 pm, Monday to Friday. We welcome teams from organisations who encourage their employees to take up some volunteering to give their time together on a gardening project.
To find out more, click the button below to see the volunteer responsibilities, skills and qualities for this role.
Our Listening Ear telephone service is a key way for us to support more vulnerable people in the community. You’ll be supporting bereaved clients via the telephone with the support and supervision of our experienced Community Services team. Training will be provided for this role to ensure you can support and signpost clients appropriately.
This role usually involves giving your time for a few hours between 10 am and 2 pm Monday to Friday and you’ll be able to manage and arrange appointments with clients yourself.
To find out more, click the button below to see the volunteer commitment, skills and qualities needed for the role.
Bereavement Support volunteers help our Walk Talk Kernow initiative, Bereavement Help Points and at our Bereavement Support Groups. Although not a counselling service, we offer information, support and signposting.
Walk Talk Kernow is a walking group providing a space for those people who are recently bereaved. Groups are held monthly in various Cornish locations, so you could be involved in sourcing suitable venues, offering support to those on the walk and leading open and supportive conversations.
Our Bereavement Help Points are monthly sessions with refreshments in venues across the county for those seeking support, information and signposting. This could involve 1-2-1 or group conversations.
This role usually involves giving your time for a few hours between 10 am and 12 pm Monday to Friday.
To find out more, click the button below to see the volunteer responsibilities, skills and qualities for this role.
Raring to go into retail? Volunteer in one of our shops – serve customers, create displays and sort through ever changing stock. The role of a retail volunteer is varied, interesting and rewarding and no two days are the same!
On the shop floor our volunteers help arrange our stock, keeping the rails and shelves full and provide great customer service, greeting shoppers with a warm welcome.
Prefer to be in the back room? Great – there you’ll be helping to sort and prepare the donations ready to sell.
Whilst most of our shops are currently open from Monday to Saturday, we hope Sunday opening is coming in many locations in 2024. We usually ask you to do either a morning or an afternoon shift, however, you can do as many or as few hours as you like to suit you.
To find out more, click the button below to see the full volunteer role description.
Volunteer in one of our donation centres – you’ll be accepting and sorting the generous donations we receive at our centres across the county. You could find yourself helping to load and unload the vans, move seasonal goods for storage and assist with moving items ready for distribution to our stores. You could help process and prepare our donated stock; separating items that are for recycling from saleable goods.
Alternatively, you may be taking in donations at the drop-off point. You can volunteer in the majority of our Donation Centres from Mondays to Saturdays 10.00 am – 4.00 pm. We encourage you to do either a morning or an afternoon shift; however, you can do as many or as few hours as you like, flexible to suit you.
To find out more, click the button below to see the volunteer responsibilities, skills and qualities needed for this role.
Volunteer van driver’s assistants travel with a van driver around the beautiful countryside of Cornwall to move stock between our donation centres and shops. You’ll assist with loading and unloading the vehicles ready for distribution to our stores or for transporting furniture to our specialist furniture stores. You may be collecting donations to take back to the distribution centre or helping to deliver items to customers’ homes.
This role is sometimes physically demanding but can provide a real variety of tasks and the opportunity to get out and meet our customers. Our Donation Centres are currently open Monday to Saturday. The nature of this role, which involves travelling through the county, means we’d prefer you to complete a full day at a time.
To find out more, click the button below to see the full volunteer role description.
You can help us list our items for sale online, generating valuable income to fund our hospices.
Our online listing team sells hundreds of donated and new goods on eBay. The eBay/online retail volunteer is an important role and you’ll be a vital member of the team based at St Austell, reporting to the eBay Manager. Our eBay team works Mondays to Saturdays from 10.00am to 4pm. We encourage you to do either a morning or an afternoon shift, but you can do as many or as few hours to suit you.
To find out more, click the button below to see the full volunteer role description.
Help put the fun into fundraising. Our fundraising groups around the county organise their own events to support us. We have 14 Volunteer Fundraising Support Groups across the county, many of which have been established since the formation of the hospices, raising thousands of pounds for the charity.
Being part of a fundraising group you will be involved in the planning, promotion and running of all sorts of fun events in your local community. The duties are varied and designed to fit in with your lifestyle and available time.
This role lends itself to those who can be flexible and are willing to give a morning or afternoon of their time, attend fundraising group meetings and be part of a team that raises funds for our hospices. You may want to volunteer once a month or do something more regularly.
To find out more, click the button below to see the full volunteer role description.
Volunteering at our events is a great way to support us WITHOUT a regular commitment.
Our Fundraising team hosts many exciting events, including parachute jumps, cycle rides both locally and overseas, half marathons, walking and other challenges and much more throughout the county each year, all raising vital funds for our hospices.
As an event volunteer, you will attend our organised events and be part of the team to help ensure they run smoothly and are a successful and positive experience for our supporters.
Typically as an event volunteer you’ll give your time for a morning or afternoon at a time when we have an event coming up. You may want to volunteer regularly e.g. once a month or may only give a few hours once a year, for instance, at a half marathon.
To find out more, click the button below to see the full volunteer role description.
In particular, this year, we are looking for volunteers to help out at our Open Gardens events through the Spring and Summer months. These usually take place on a weekend (although not always) and we’re looking for those who could give their time for a morning or afternoon.
You could be involved in welcoming guests, helping with parking, setting up, serving refreshments or selling plants. If you’d like to find out more about this seasonal volunteering role click the button below.
Our welcome call volunteers will make telephone calls to engage with our new supporters. You’ll be making telephone calls to engage with our new supporters and take the opportunity during the call to ask a few questions to get valued opinions which will help us understand our supporters and encourage feedback.
You’ll be based at one of our Fundraising offices in either Hayle or St Austell. We are looking for volunteers for approximately 2-3 Hours per week which can be flexible to suit you, but usually between Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3.30pm.
To find out more, click the button below to see the full volunteer role description.
We also have a number of departments who require administration support to help our teams, so if you are an admin whizz with time to spare, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with our Volunteering team via email at volunteer@cornwallhospice.co.uk or call 01726 65711 and ask for Volunteer services to have a chat.
Also, look at our Volunteering Frequently Asked Questions section to answer some of the most popular enquiries we get.
If you’re ready to complete our full volunteer application form you can find it here.
Please note that to volunteer with us you must be a UK citizen, resident in the UK.
