Six surprising ways you can volunteer with Barnardo’s

Our amazing retail volunteers help us raise vital money that fund services across the UK. There’s lots of good reasons to volunteer in one of our shops, but if that’s not for you we’d like to share some other ways you could get involved.

We support children and young people in different ways across the country so we might not offer these specific opportunities near you, but if you check our volunteering portal you’ll find lots of ways you could use your experience and skills to help us change childhoods and change lives.

If you’d like to spend your time volunteering outside and you’ve got green fingers we might have the perfect opportunity for you! In locations across the country volunteer gardeners help make our centres welcoming environments for the children, young people and families who use them. They maintain flower beds, planters, shrubs and vegetable patches and keep outdoor areas safe for children. In some places you can also get involved in the delivery of outdoor learning activities with children and their parents/carers, such as Forest School and Worms and Wellies where children get the chance to build a connection with nature while having fun getting dirty outside.

If you have limited time to volunteer but still want to be part of our work, you could join us at one of our events across the UK. At events like the London Marathon enthusiastic ‘Events Ambassadors’ join us at our cheer stations along the route to collect donations, encourage our fantastic fundraisers to keep going and help us celebrate their achievements at our post-race party.

We’re incredibly grateful that people donate their good quality, pre-loved clothes for us to sell in our shops.  However, we often get items donated to our shops that can’t be sold in their current state as they’re too worn, stained or missing fixings like buttons. That’s where our Re-Fashion volunteers come in.

We’ve currently got two Re-Fashion Hubs, one in Bradford in the North of England, and one in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands. At the hubs the volunteers repair or rework donated textile items that would otherwise be sent to our recycling merchants. They give these donations a new lease of life, either by repairing them or turning them into completely new products, so we can sell them in our shops. So, through their creative talents these volunteers help us cut waste and raise money that funds our services supporting children and young people across the UK.

We want to be a place where everyone can feel they belong. That’s why everyone should receive a warm welcome when they get in touch or walk through one of our doors. Volunteers help us make that happen.

Meet and Greet, and Reception volunteers help welcome people to our services, making sure that the first thing people see when they arrive is a warm smile. They also help with admin tasks around the office making sure things run smoothly. If you’re looking to gain some experience in an office environment this could be a great role for you.

If you prefer to talk to people on the phone, have a good listening ear and a desire to get people the help they need, you could answer calls on one of our helplines. When families don’t know where to turn, we want to be there for them. One of the ways we do this is by providing helplines people can call for support. These are sometimes answered by volunteers who provide confidential and impartial information, advice and support for parents, carers, children and young people. There can be an opportunity to further training, allowing you to offer more detailed support and developing your skills and knowledge.

Imagine being a child or young person and feeling socially isolated. Our volunteer drivers help change that. Either in one of our approved minibuses or in their own vehicles, volunteer drivers help get children and families to community groups, appointments, social activities and help them maintain contact with their birth families. It might be that thanks to you a child with additional support needs gets to visit a children’s centre for an activity session with other children. Or a group of young carers get to go to bowling together for the first time. It might be a short drive, but it helps towards changing a childhood and changing a life.

Our shops are a great place to find affordable clothes for your family but for some families who have limited financial means they can be out of reach. Our community clothing services provide free clothing for children, young people and families. Clothing donations are cleaned, sorted and made available, free of charge, to families who use our centres. As well as clothing that is rotated seasonally, some outlets provide specialised clothing, such as school uniforms or babywear. There can also be toys and books for the children.

We also sometimes take items to locations where families are living in temporary accommodation. These families may have had to leave their homes suddenly for a variety of reasons and may have very few possessions with them.

We are incredibly grateful that last year 17,350 people volunteered their energy and awe-inspiring 1.8 million hours of time (Barnardo’s, 2025) to help us make children and young people across the UK feel safer, happier, healthier and more hopeful. We couldn’t do what we do without them. If you’d like to join them and use your skills and expertise to help us change childhoods and change lives we’d love to have you on board.