Together we can keep making a difference

As we move into our second year, our small and passionate team is looking to build a community of willing, kind and capable volunteers to help us grow and realise our ambitions and charitable objectives.

Choosing to volunteer with us is your chance to get involved with and make a difference to a cause and community that are important to you. Whatever your personal motivation, background or experience, we hope you’ll keep reading and consider getting involved in a way that suits you.

 

This could include:

  • Helping plan and run the events we host, for example our Pie & Pint nights, Harvest Ball and Tractor Run

  • Attending external events and represent the charity, eg.Farmer’s Markets or Young Farmer’s Rallies

  • Helping organise our mental health training sessions

  • Other ad hoc opportunities

We recognise that all time is valuable and however much you can donate will be appreciated. And if you can’t give your time, your advocacy would mean just as much, to spread the word about who we are, what we do and why supporting the mental wellbeing of our communities is so important.

How it works

When it comes to volunteering, it’s a two-way partnership. In choosing to volunteer for us, we commit to:

  • An RCMH induction – you’ll learn more about things like our people, our aims and how we function, plus some of our do and don’ts so you can on-brand and consistent with us

  • Access to Mental Health training – you don’t need to be an expert to join us and you’ll have the opportunity to do our Mental Health First Aid and Talking About Suicide 10 Tools (TAS10) training

  • Giving you our full support and respect

  • Always treating you with dignity

  • Communicating clearly, in your preferred method, and respecting time boundaries

  • Funding a DBS check, when needed

  • Always ensuring the charity has sufficient public liability insurance. You can view our current certificate here

In return we ask that you’re honest and open with us, acting with integrity at all times.

If all of this sounds like something you would like to get involved with, please sign up! If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch at hello@rcmhfoundation.org

How to sign up

  1. Join our volunteers group by completing a registration form to help us find out a bit more about you: RCMH Volunteer Sign Up Form

  2. By applying to become a volunteer, you agree to abide by our Volunteer Terms and Conditions

  3. We will review all submissions and be in touch with you. If you become a volunteer we will ask you to share next of kin details and sign you up to our next training sessions, asssuming you’d like to do this

    Whilst attending one of these training sessions isn’t mandatory, they are absolutely brilliant and help to educate our community on mental health and having the important conversations we believe are essential to reducing the risk of suicide.

As events or training sessions are planned, we will contact our Volunteer community to ask if anyone is able to help and what roles need filling.

FAQs

Q. Do I have to help at every event?

A. Absolutely not, there is no obligation to help if you can’t. We understand you have your own commitments and would never insist on your help. We only ask that if you do agree to help on a particular event, then you are reliable and turn up to this. Letting us down, particularly at the last minute, is really difficult for us.


Q. Are you looking for any specific skills from your volunteers?

A. No. We welcome anyone to volunteer with us and if you have any skills which we might be able to put to good use, we would love to hear from you. These might be event planning, logistics, marketing, social media management, graphic design or people management.


Q. How many hours do you need me to volunteer each year? 

A. Any help in a year would be hugely appreciated. We would simply ask that you aim to volunteer your time once a year as a minimum for us. And if your employer has a volunteering programme and you can use your hours with us, we’re happy to sign anything as needed.


Q. Do I need a farming background?

A. No. it’s not a prerequisite to be a farmer or have a farming connection. Understanding the rural way of life or living in and appreciating the countryside would be a nice added bonus.