Buckinghamshire Volunteer Matching Service

The Buckinghamshire Volunteer Matching Service matches registered volunteers to roles where they are most needed in the county.

*Important notice* we will be upgrading the Volunteer Matching Service to a new digital volunteering platform in September 2024. For this reason will no longer be processing registrations on the current system. Sign up to Community Impact Bucks’ mailing list to receive further updates. 

The Big Help Out 2024

The Big Help Out was launched in 2023 to give people across the UK a chance to experience a range of volunteer taster sessions. This year it ran from Friday 7 to Sunday to 9 June 2024 – visit The Big Help Out website to find a volunteer taster session near you.

2000th volunteer matched

We are delighted to announce that the 2000th volunteer has been matched in Bucks by the Buckinghamshire Volunteer Matching Service! Find out more on our news webpage and our case study webpage to read more about Evie, our 2000th volunteer.

Examples of volunteer roles currently available

The Volunteer Matching Service matches registered volunteers to the most suitable role for you. Below is a list of some of the current roles on offer. This list does not include all roles but is updated regularly.

Example roles:

Frontline/ Emergency Response 

  • South Central Ambulance Service – Community First Responders – Join the local Bourne End scheme and attend medical and trauma emergencies, often providing vital intervention and support before the arrival of the ambulance crew. 

Befriending and Mentoring:   

  • Volunteering Matters Chesham – befriending volunteers for two children living in foster care in Chesham. 
  • PSPA – Link Volunteers to support people living with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD) and their families 
  • Monday Contact Club at Fairford Leys Community Centre – Volunteers to support with lunch and activities.    
  • Bucks Vision – Befrienders in person or by call and activity support with social groups for blind and partially sighted people.   
  • Enrych – Befrienders to take up a regular activity or hobby with a physically disabled adult. 
  • High Wycombe Gateway Club – Volunteers to support adults with learning disabilities in various club social activities.     
  • POhWER – Community Advocacy volunteers to support the Community Advocacy team with various referral tasks.   
  • Age Concern Flackwell Heath & Loudwater – Care Assistance volunteers are needed to support the Nancie Ross Centre. Volunteers Minibus drivers must transport clients to and from their homes to the centre.   

 

Involving Young People:    

  • Girlguiding – volunteers assisting or leading unit meetings in Chalfont St Peter. 
  • Buckingham and Winslow Young Carers – Run a Youth Club for young carers on Friday evenings and volunteer drivers to transport young people to and from the club. They are also looking for Team Leaders and Family Liaison volunteers.   
  • School readers – Volunteers to listen to children read in local schools throughout Buckinghamshire.   
  • Wycombe Youth Action – Volunteers support the youth who attend our activities group.  
  • Horizon Sports Club – Volunteers are needed for one-to-one support during sports classes in High Wycombe. 
  • Prisma Group – ‘’Loud & Proud’’ youth forum facilitator volunteers across Bucks to offer online and in-person support.        
  • Risborough Youth Club in Princes Risborough are looking for support volunteers to help run their weekly club sessions for young people. 
  • Brighter Futures Together, Marlow – Experienced Youth Support Work Volunteer to deliver a high-quality face-to-face youth work service for drop-ins and group work support sessions. 

 

Outdoor Activities:   

  • Missenden Walled Garden – Help look after the gardens at Missenden Abbey by undertaking various garden maintenance tasks.   
  • Ford End Watermill – Volunteers are needed to support visitors and to help maintain the watermill.                
  • Ashendon Playing Fields Association – Volunteers to help clear an overgrown allotment and create a wildlife garden within that.   
  • Vana Trust Organic Farm – Social Media, Marketing and Fundraising Volunteer in Ludgershall and/or REMOTE.   
  • Hughenden Parish Council – Community Speedwatch Volunteers in Naphill, Gt Kingshill, Hughenden Valley, and Widmer End.  
  • Garden Ninjas – A gardening volunteer group that helps with looking after the Stoke Poges Memorial Garden on Mondays and Thursdays. 

 

Foodbank/ Food Service Roles:   

  • Hills Café – a community cafe based in Micklefield, is looking for volunteers to help serve, bake, or make coffee, supporting the customers.   
  • Wycombe Food Hub – Warehouse volunteers and/or driver volunteers collecting food from supermarkets, covering High Wycombe and District.        
  • Space (Aylesbury) – seasonal worker volunteers at St Mary’s Church & Church of the Good Shepherd, food collection from local supermarkets, and walking groups along the canal. 

  

Transport:  

  • Hospital Car Service – Operating in Buckingham, driving patients to and from hospital appointments.   
  • Thames Valley PHAB – volunteer drivers to pick up PHAB members from their homes, take them to monthly activities and bring them home again.          
  • Wycombe Food Hub and Aylesbury Foodbank – Volunteers drivers collect food from supermarkets and transport food boxes to distribution centres.    
  • Aylesbury Volunteer Drivers Scheme – Volunteer drivers to support vulnerable community members who cannot access public or private transport to and from medical appointments.  
  • Abbeyfield Beaconsfield Society – Minibus drivers are needed for local outings around South Bucks for care home residents in Beaconsfield, with occasional trips to Henley and London. 
  • Chesham Voluntary Hospital Car Service – Volunteer Drivers to take patients to hospitals and other medical appointments.    

  

Other Community-based Roles:  

  • Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SoBS) – Facilitators to volunteer as peer group support meetings in Aylesbury. 
  • Brook – Sexual health and wellbeing advocates to ensure communities can access support and self-manage their own sexual and reproductive health in an effective and holistic way. 
  • Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway – Event Coordinator volunteers to help extend their market reach and attract even more visitors. 
  • Furze Down School in Winslow – Classroom painting volunteer during the summer holidays, for one week, starting 14th of July 24. Tools & paint provided 
  • Amersham Memory Café – Co-ordinators are needed to help set up and run a new dementia support café for the community of Amersham and surrounding villages.    
  • South Central Ambulance Service – Help raise the profile of SCAS in your local community via events and social media by joining the Community Support team.   
  • Hector’s House – help raise awareness of the charity’s services and fundraise by manning stalls at local supermarkets and events.   
  • Dementia Carers Respite – Help support the charity as a remote Fundraising Researcher, finding and analysing suitable grants to apply for.   
  • Marlow Museum – Stewards will help run the museum on Wednesday afternoons and weekends. Volunteers would take on a 2-hour session every other week.   
  • Calibre Audio – USB audiobooks processing volunteers & admin support volunteers for their 50th-anniversary celebrations. 
  • TalkBack – Various support with groups doing Woodwork, Drama and theatre, Choir leadership, sports and wellbeing, accounting and general support or working with a group of able autistic young men.     
  • Community Impact Bucks – Looking for a volunteer Pub Lunch Club Co-ordinator in Ludgershall.   
  • Marie Curie – Community Fundraising volunteer and support Marie Curie by organising various funding methods in your local community.                  
  • National Paralympic Heritage Trust – Support the Heritage Trust as either the Learning and Engagement role to deliver learning to groups or schools or as a Heritage Centre volunteer to provide day-to-day operations.      
  • The Oasis Partnership – Volunteers roles in Aylesbury, Chesham, and High Wycombe: Art Box volunteers, Routes to Work and Reconnect Café volunteers, Befrienders, Sewing Circle volunteers, Walking, music or cooking Group volunteers, Brew and Biscuits volunteers. 

 

Charity Shop Support:   

  • British Heart Foundation – volunteers to help at their shop in White Hart Street, High Wycombe 
  • Shaw Trust Charity Shop – Shop Assistant volunteers are needed for the charity shop located in Chesham Town Centre.    

Community Impact Bucks also posts volunteer vacancies which are not registered with Volunteer Matching Service on our Vacancies and Opportunities webpage. If you are interested in any of these roles, please contact those organisations directly.

Under 18? Volunteering options for 13-17 year olds

Buckinghamshire’s Volunteer Matching Service: the Buckinghamshire Volunteer Matching Service matches registered volunteers to roles where they are most needed in the county. We are no longer processing new volunteer registrations onto the current system, as we will be launching a new digital volunteering platform in September 2024.  Sign up to Community Impact Bucks’ mailing list to receive further updates.

Aylesbury Youth Action:  a place where young people can further develop their skills. Volunteers can register interest on their online form.

Wycombe Youth Action: many of Wycombe Youth Action’s current volunteers have been involved with Wycombe Youth Action (WYA) and are committed to helping young people just like them. By encouraging development of their natural skills, these volunteers are now the leaders and confidantes of WYA’s young people. Find out more on WYA’s website.

Duke of Edinburgh: you can find a list of volunteering ideas and opportunities for young people on the Duke of Edinburgh website:

VInspired: you can find general volunteer roles suitable for young people (aged 16 – 30) on the VInspired website.

Do-IT: Do-IT is a national online database of volunteer opportunities. If you see a role you like but it is for those 18 or over, it is worth contacting them to see if they would be happy for you to do it if a parent/ guardian accompanies you.

Other ideas:

Opportunity Bucks: get involved in Wycombe, Aylesbury and Chesham

Buckinghamshire Council want to make sure that everyone in Buckinghamshire has the same opportunities to reach their potential and live happy, healthy lives. As part of its Opportunity Bucks programme, the Council has identified ten wards across High Wycombe, Aylesbury and Chesham where people are experiencing the most hardship, and where it aims to improve everyday life and generate more opportunities.

Opportunity Bucks roles

  • Do you have new ideas for your areas? Ward partnerships have been established within the 10 wards, bringing together key community partners and residents to identify local challenges and opportunities. No experience or knowledge is required, just the motivation to make a positive impact and collaborate with other residents to plan, organise or support activities, events and projects. If you would like more information, contact communities@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.

More opportunities in Aylesbury Wards (North, North-west, South-west):

  • FoodCycle Aylesbury – Support the Cooking, Hosting, or Project Lead teams providing weekly community meals using donated surplus food.
  • Barbara Bus – Volunteer Demonstrator needed in Aylesbury on an ad-hoc basis to teach users how to safely secure a wheelchair in their specially adapted vehicle.
  • Woodgreen Charity Pet Shop – Various shifts are available at the new pet shop in Ayelsbury.
  • Aylesbury Vale Child Contact Centre – support parents and children who come to visit the centre on Saturdays.
  • Spark2life – volunteer as a mentor to support young people transitioning from primary to secondary school.

More opportunities in Chesham Ward:

  • Calibre Audio – A volunteer driver is needed to transport a member of the monthly book group to and from the session.
  • Chesham Leys (Fremantle Trust) – Gardeners willing to spend 3-4 hours a week on weekdays looking after the gardens at the Chesham Leys Care Home.
  • Chesham in Bloom – Improve the way that Chesham looks and how people feel about their town by undertaking various gardening and clean-up projects.
  • National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) – Support and befriend a young person under Local Authority Care, arranging activities and outings, as part of the Independent Visitors Service.

More opportunities in High Wycombe Wards (Abbey, Booker Cressex & Castlefield, Ryemead & Micklefield, Terriers & Amersham Hill, Totteridge & Bowerdean, West Wycombe):

  • T&T News – Volunteers to help distribute the magazine around the Totteridge and Terriers area of High Wycombe four times a year.
  • Wycombe Arts Centre – A volunteer co-ordinator is needed to support the management team with recruiting and training volunteers across various projects.
  • High Wycombe Shopmobility – Various shifts during the week to help operate its service loaning out mobility scooters at the Eden Centre
  • Horizons Sports Club – Provide one to one support during various sports classes.
  • Action for Children – Various roles to support the Bucks Activity Project. They are looking for: Disability Support volunteers to take children aged 0-19 on outings and Office Support to assist with admin tasks; Disability Support volunteers, gardening volunteers, and minibus drivers at their Residential Short-Break Services in High Wycombe.
  • Wycombe Youth Action – Session support volunteers to work with project officers to deliver various activities across groups.
  • Hills Café – help provide the local community a space to meet and socialise by volunteering as a server.
  • St Andrews Lunch Club – help serve lunch and refreshments for retired people every Wednesday.

Frequently asked questions

*Important notice* we will be upgrading the Volunteer Matching Service to a new digital volunteering platform in September 2024. For this reason will no longer be processing registrations on the current system. Sign up to Community Impact Bucks’ mailing list to receive further updates. 

Q: What is the Buckinghamshire Volunteer Matching Service (VMS)?

A: The Buckinghamshire Volunteer Matching Service (VMS) helps people who want to volunteer in Buckinghamshire find the right role for them and helps organisations find the volunteers that they need.

Q: How does the VMS work?

A: Volunteers register with the service on the Community Impact Bucks website, providing some basic information about their location, availability and volunteering preferences.

One of the VMS team (who are all volunteers themselves) then telephones each volunteer to talk through current volunteering opportunities, which organisations have asked the VMS to help them fill. If the team member can’t reach the volunteer by phone, they will try to contact the volunteer by email.

If one of those opportunities is suitable, the VMS emails the volunteer with the contact details of the organisation that they are matched with. The volunteer then contacts the organisation direct to find out what the next steps are to volunteering in the role.

If there is no current volunteering opportunity that is suitable for the volunteer, the VMS will keep the volunteer’s details on record and bear them in mind as new requests for volunteers come in.

Q: What kinds of volunteer roles are available?

A: The range of opportunities available through the VMS changes all the time.

Here are some examples recent volunteering opportunities:

  • Volunteer Drivers
  • Shop Volunteers
  • Volunteer befrienders
  • Volunteer mentors
  • Gardening volunteers
  • Administration volunteers
  • Youth Club volunteer helpers
  • Volunteer museum stewards
  • Hospital volunteers

You can see many of the current opportunities listed on the Examples of volunteer roles currently available.

 Q: Does the VMS have any age restrictions?

A: The VMS is primarily for volunteers who are 16 or over. The Service does not process new registrations from volunteers under 16.

Q: How much time does volunteering take up?

A: The time commitment depends on the volunteering role. VMS team members always try to establish how much time each volunteer can offer and on which days and would only suggest volunteering opportunities that fit with those hours.

Q: Can I be matched to more than one volunteering role?

A: Yes. If you have the time available and like the sound of more than one role suggested by the VMS team, you can be matched to each of them.

If you have come to the end of a volunteering role and would like another, the VMS help find another match – just email us on volunteermatching@communityimpactbucks.org.uk.

Q: What happens once I am matched?

A: You will receive an email from the VMS giving you details of who to contact in the organisation which has requested volunteers for that role. The next step is for you to make contact with the charity direct to say that you are interested in the volunteer role.

Because of data protection rules, the VMS does not provide that organisation with any of your details aside from your name and, in with your permission, what you have told us about any DBS check you may have had i.e. the level of DBS check and who would verify the check.

Q: Can I leave if the role I am matched to isn’t for me?

A: Yes, of course. There’s no obligation to stay in a role if it isn’t right for you. Speak with your volunteer supervisor in the organisation and let them know how you feel.

If you would like the VMS to find you a new role, just email us on volunteermatching@communityimpactbucks.org.uk .

Q: Can the VMS help me find a paid job with a charity or voluntary organisation?

A: No, the VMS only helps people find voluntary, unpaid roles.

Q: Can I volunteer if I have a disability?

A: Yes, many organisations can provide a variety of access and support needs. The VMS can help with initial questions you may have about any particular role, as we are already in contact with the organisation.

Q: Do I need a DBS check?

A: Whether you need a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check or not will depend on the volunteer role. The VMS will tell you whether or not a DBS is required when discussing volunteering opportunities with you, and some organisations will carry out their own DBS checks when you are matched with them. You can find further information on DBS and volunteering on Disclosure & Barring website.

Q: Can I volunteer if I have a criminal conviction?

A: Many people with a criminal conviction do volunteer, however, it may limit the roles you can do depending on the nature of the conviction. The VMS can help you find a suitable volunteering role. 

Do you need volunteers?

*Important notice* we will be upgrading the Volunteer Matching Service to a new digital volunteering platform in September 2024. For this reason will no longer be processing registrations on the current system. Sign up to Community Impact Bucks’ mailing list to receive further updates. 

If you are looking for a group of volunteers, our Team Volunteering webpage provides information about some of the Bucks-based opportunities that are available.

Community Support for Ukrainian refugees in Buckinghamshire: If your organisation needs volunteers to help deliver a service that supports Ukrainian refugees in Buckinghamshire, complete the volunteer request form and the team will be in contact when suitable volunteers are found.

If you are a charity, voluntary or community group or social enterprise, and need help with your volunteering activities, or know of one who does, Community Impact Bucks can provide tailored advice, guidance and bespoke support. Please complete our support request form and one of our team will contact you to discuss the bespoke help we can provide.

Further support and guidance for your organisation can be found by selecting ‘MENU’ at the top of this webpage, and look under the heading ‘Support for Groups’ for a list of options.

If you would like to the opportunity to network with other organisations in Bucks, Community Impact Bucks is hosting a series of online forums for Bucks-based charities, voluntary and community groups, and social enterprises to share information and collaborate on the local issues that matter most. These free forums – Local Voluntary Sector Networks – provide an informal space where not-for-profit organisations can discuss local needs and explore opportunities for change in their communities. Find out more on our Local Voluntary Sector Network webpage. 

If you would like to receive our regular bulletins, Bucks Charity News, with latest guidance, funding opportunities and useful advice, join Community Impact Bucks’ free membership scheme by registering on our Membership page. 

How data is processed

The purpose of the data collected through the volunteer request form, volunteer registration form, and subsequent email/phone contact is for the provision of the Volunteer Matching Service in supporting voluntary groups and volunteers. We will store this information for the purpose of placing volunteers in volunteer roles where they are most needed in Buckinghamshire. The contact information will not be used for any other purpose than offering support to voluntary groups and volunteers. The full details are in our privacy statement.