No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. In recent times we have witnessed amazing acts of kindness in our communities.
Volunteering at Livewell Southwest can be a life changing experience, for you, those we support and our staff. By spending some time chatting with patients, supporting with administrative tasks, helping keep our gardens great or lending a hand with our training courses you’ll be making an invaluable contribution to our work if you choose to volunteer with us. In return, you gain work experience and confidence by learning new skills, meeting new people and being part of a team.
You will receive training pertinent to the role as well as gaining certificates by completing mandatory online learning. You will have the opportunity to complete the National Volunteer Certificate by completing additional training once you have volunteered for a minimum of 60 hours.
We offer a variety of flexible volunteering roles in Plymouth and surrounding areas. Due to the nature of our work, volunteers undergo certain recruitment checks; this may include a standard or enhanced DBS check depending on the role, providing two references and undergoing an occupational health screen. We will provide you with the necessary support to ensure that this process is as smooth as possible.
You will find samples of our volunteer roles below. If you wish to share a special talent and don’t find a role that interests you, please email and we can consider if any of our services could be enhanced by your talent.
Find current opportunities at Go Volunteering – search ‘Livewell’
Example opportunities
Fish Tank Volunteer - Thornberry Centre
This role would suit a keen fish tank keeper who is able to keep the tank at the Thornberry Centre clean and the fish healthy.
Friends & Family Test Volunteer - various services
The role will involve calling individuals who have received input from a variety of Community Services and encouraging feedback about service user experiences and inputting this anonymised data into a web-based form known as the friends and family survey.
Volunteer Gardener
Could you help keep our Wellbeing Garden tidy and safe? Weeding, tidying up, cutting back etc in line with suggestions from estate’s gardener.
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Meet & Greet Volunteer
If you are willing to help to create a pleasant environment for patients, staff and visitors then this may be the volunteering role for you.
Patient Driver Volunteer
Help someone get to the therapy sessions they depend on.
We’re looking for compassionate, friendly volunteers who can drive one of our pool cars to transport people to and from their therapy appointments. Missed sessions don’t just impact the service — they can seriously affect a person’s rehabilitation and overall wellbeing.
By giving a little of your time, you can make a meaningful difference in someone’s recovery journey.
If you’re reliable, enjoy meeting people, and want to support your community, we’d love to hear from you.
Pool Car Check Volunteer
Our clinical teams should be spending their time where it matters most — with patients. You can help make that possible.
We’re looking for volunteers who can support us by carrying out basic checks on our pool cars, such as:
- Checking fluid levels
- Inspecting tyres
- Taking vehicles to the car wash
- Reporting any issues to staff
If you have a clean driving licence and a willingness to help, this role makes a real difference. Car maintenance might seem small, but it keeps our services running smoothly and frees up staff to focus on patient care.
Admin - Feedback for Services from Service Users
An opportunity to help improve our services by seeking impartial feedback from our service users. Could you help us by contacting people who have used our services and anonymously record the feedback?
Chaplaincy Volunteer - Patient Visitor
We are looking for a volunteer to assist the Lead Chaplain to meet our patients’ spiritual and pastoral needs, including visiting patients on wards.
Admin Support – Adult ADHD Assessment Service
We are looking for a compassionate, polite and friendly volunteer to help the Adult ADHD Assessment Service. The volunteer would support with general administrative tasks.
I have been a volunteer with Livewell weight management programme for about nine years now and it was when I was going through the programme myself that they started the buddy programme. I thought this was a fantastic way to give back, given the support that the weight management team had given me.
I thought that it was important that I gave back to them, and we have a succinct set of skills in so much as we know how being a patient and going through the programme, just how tough it can be.
The buddies provide support for all patients and they can do that in a many ways. We can run coffee mornings, go on a walk with them, offer one on one meet ups or take them to a sports event or they might need some support doing some sort of exercise; anything really that they need.
We also like to feed back into the weight management programme. If we spot something that might not be appropriate or might not be quite right, we can feed that back into the system so that changes can be made.
I would heartly recommend becoming a volunteer. I think you cannot get the same sort of fulfilment from anything when you are giving your time freely to help somebody else.
When you apply, you will need…
- Identification
1 x photo ID e.g. a passport or driver’s licence
2 x proof of address e.g. a bank statement or utility bill from within the last 3 months - Two references
The names and contact details of two people over 18 who have known you for more than 6 months, who are not related to you, and who would be happy to answer a few questions about you. - To keep an eye out for updates
We’ll update you when each step of the recruitment process is complete so watch out for any emails from us. - Plenty of enthusiasm!
Contact
Email: [email protected]