Over the years CSV has piloted and launched ground-breaking volunteering programmes thanks to support from charitable trusts and foundations.

In 2004-05 we want to continue working creatively and responsibly with you.

CSV helps a wide range of beneficiaries and tackles a variety of social needs including:

Children

• Our volunteers give intensive support to children in care and children at risk of wrecking their lives through truancy, drugs and crime.
• We also teach children to read and involve children in community activities like planting bulbs in homes for the elderly.

Young adults (16-24)

• We encourage young people to spend four to twelve months helping someone in need in the UK.
• We also provide basic skills and vocational training for young people who have been excluded from school and rejected by other training organisations.

Older people

• Our volunteers befriend and support elderly housebound people at risk of social isolation.
  
• We encourage everyone over 50 to keep active and share their skills and experiences with their community through volunteering.

People with disabilities

• Our volunteers provide 24-hour support to people with physical and learning disabilities, enabling them to live an independent and dignified life in their own homes.
  
• We also provide training for people with learning and physical disabilities, helping them to gain employment through achieving a national qualification.

Social exclusion

• CSV believes that everyone can make a difference to their community and that they should be given a chance to do so. We never turn away anyone who wants to volunteer, be they ex-offenders, refugees, substance abusers, homeless people or unemployed people.
  
  Instead we carefully match them to projects that need their help. By believing in their potential, we use volunteering and training opportunities to turn their lives around.
  
• Our volunteers mentor young people at risk of offending, and young people leaving prison. We concentrate on people who find it hardest to relate to the world around them.

Disadvantaged communities

• We target work in areas that have been identified as action zones. We provide training, extra support in schools and build and strengthen disillusioned communities by helping them enhance their own environment.

Education

• Our volunteers help raise reading levels in schools by giving regular individual support to children.
  
• CSV was a pioneer of citizenship education. Now that is part of the English school curriculum, we help schools and teachers to grasp the concept and to teach it effectively to our future citizens.

Health

• Our volunteers care for people with long-term illnesses and physical disabilities, enabling them to lead the life they choose.
  
• We provide respite care for carers, giving them a well-earned break and providing high quality care and companionship in their stead.
  
• Our volunteers extend GP services to patients, collecting prescriptions for housebound people, transporting patients to appointments, and acting as “expert patients” to help patients understand their condition.

The environment (both natural and built)

• We encourage people to take responsibility for their own environment by clearing stretches of river, creating community forests on patches of wasteland, and looking after gardens in hospitals and residential homes. This creates a sense of community and increases local pride.
  
• Our volunteers build sensory gardens to be enjoyed by people who are disabled, with strong scents, bright colours and varied textures.

For further information, please contact Helen Stack on 020 7643 1340 or email hstack@csv.org.uk