This page is aimed at residential volunteers. If you are joining us on a daily basis then some of the information may still apply but you are more likely to be working on one-off projects.

The work

Residential volunteering is great fun but do be prepared for hard work and pretty long hours.

Working routines are based on our guests needs and can vary from week to week. Youth weeks can be more demanding than others for instance or you might choose to come on a particular Theme Week. You can view all Theme Weeks here or download our Theme Weeks PDF to see all 2008-9 weeks at a glance.

• Short-term residential volunteers (between one and four weeks) can expect to be on duty for around 14 hours a day, although don't worry, you will get some time off too!
  
  
• Longer-term volunteers (after an initial two week orientation period) will have two days off each week and will work reduced hours.

Vitalise provides essential short breaks for disabled people and carers and the whole ethos of our Vitalise Centres is to give our guests as much opportunity to have a good time as possible. We work hard to provide a holiday environment very different to traditional respite breaks.

You play a vital role providing support and independence to our guests. As a residential volunteer there will be plenty of socialising as you’ll be providing companionship and practical help on outings and activities. We hope the more relaxing social activities are enjoyable for our volunteers as well as our guests, but there’s still no getting away from the long hours!

You will help to provide some basic personal care and assistance to our guests on an individual basis. Unless you have previous experience and training in this area and are happy to help then you will not be expected to help with intimate personal care.

You won’t be asked to undertake any task you feel uncomfortable with.

For more information on what to expect you can check out our Volunteer FAQs or download our Volunteering With Vitalise information leaflet (pdf document)

The Centres

Why not have a look at the Our Centres pages? These are mainly aimed at our guests but they give you a flavour of each Centre (each one is different!) and the different facilities available to both you and the guests. They also show you whereabouts in the UK each Centre is located.

If you would like to volunteer at Vitalise Churchtown in Cornwall the Centre has provided some extra useful infomation. Download Vitalise Churchtown volunteer information (pdf document)

As a residential volunteer your accommodation is most likely to be in shared bunk rooms with between two and four volunteers per room.

There are very limited single rooms available. If you feel strongly that you need a single room then let us know at the time of registering and we will do our best to accommodate you but we can’t guarantee it. It’s not nearly as fun being on your own anyway!

Bed linen, washing facilities and showers are provided for all residential volunteers as well as all your meals.