Volunteer Telford

Do you want to help Borough residents to start talking about Climate Change and Sustainability and to take action?

We are looking for volunteers to be Telford and Wrekin’s first Climate Change Champions, these individuals will be willing to help the Council in a variety of ways to help engage Borough residents on Climate Change and Sustainability within their own communities, schools and groups.

You don't need to be a Climate Change and Sustainability expert - we want to hear from residents from all walks of life who love talking to people.

We would ideally like our Champions to make changes to their own lifestyles to reduce their carbon footprint and plastic as part of the role and to share your experiences.

Purpose of the role:

Climate Change Champions will be individuals who seek to help lead sustainable change in their communities.

Climate Change Champions will be a vital part of our delivery of Climate Change and Sustainability engagement within the Borough.

What will you do?

Promote Climate Change & Sustainability

The core function of the role will be to promote Climate Change and Sustainability, by encouraging effective resource use and leading by example to help Borough residents do the same thorough;

- sharing information with members of your community on how they can get involved;

- promoting local/national Climate Change and Sustainability campaigns;

- helping the Council to promote Council Climate Change and Sustainability consultations/questionnaires/surveys to your communities.

Climate Change Champions Group

- You will be part of a group of like-minded individuals from across the Borough, where you will have the opportunity to collaborate on projects, such as participating in Action Days where you will work together on initiatives such as litter picks, Refill days.

Reporting progress

- We would love to know what you and/or your community/organisation/school are doing to support Climate Change and Sustainability action within Telford and Wrekin, as such we would like all Champions to keep us up to date with what is happening. This can be done by podcasts/writing blog posts/or articles for the Sustainable Telford and Wrekin website or sharing photos with our twitter page in line with the Councils social media guidelines.

Activity Assistant.  We hold a regular Youth Club for any young carers who want to come, on alternate Wednesday evenings (5-7pm) for different age carers (one week primary school age, the following week secondary school age). 

If you're over 16 you can support our younger group and if you're 18+ you can support both groups.  You'll work in within our team of staff and other volunteers, preparing and taking part in activities (games, crafts, lego, computer games, sports etc). 

We also provide a filling meal so you might be on kitchen duty some weeks! You'll play alongside the children, making sure they have lots of fun, and also be a listening ear if they have any worries they want to talk about. 

Join our fun-loving team and we'll pay you for any travel or other expenses and you'll receive training and ongoing support.

Chatterbox is our award-winning, flagship befriending service designed to support those who find themselves isolated, vulnerable, and/or alone in later life.

Volunteers with our Chatterbox programme are matched with a client, most of whom are socially isolated and/or lonely, with whom they organise a weekly phone call at a mutually convenient time. 

As well as offering a listening ear and companionship, our befrienders are able to sign post individuals to other agencies who may be able to offer further support as and when appropriate. We give our befrienders comprehensive training and support throughout their time with Omega.

All volunteering time with Chatterbox is completed from the comfort of your own home.

The trail was established in 2018 to celebrate Telford’s 50th anniversary.

Since then, it has been well used for recreation, charity events and ultra and relay events. There is a guidebook, this generates an income which is used to support the trail.  The state of the trail is monitored by a panel of champions who look after set stages. 

Any problems they find are either dealt with by them, by members of the committee or referred to Telford and Wrekin Council.

In 2023 the group applied for a grant to establish and waymark 23 short circular Coronation Walks throughout the Borough. Work on these is progressing well.

The group runs a website a Facebook page and holds occasional events.

The group is looking for new blood on the committee. Ideally they would like for a new secretary (a minutes secretary would be a help), possibly a new chair (although the current secretary is happy to take this if a new secretary can be found), but new people on the committee would be welcome.

The time commitment varies tremendously so flexibility is another key asset.

The committee meets about 8 times a year, in the early evenings, by Zoom.

The chair chairs these meetings and takes a lead in all the major decisions of the group.

The current secretary mainly deals with any incoming emails, prepares agendas and minutes, looks after the website , issues certificates on request to those completing the trail, administers  the annual Relay Challenge, represents the group on the Local Access Forum,  sends occasional emails to the  Mail chimp list  of members  and  is one of the Facebook admins.

With a new secretary, some of these tasks could be delegated to others on the committee.  .