Volunteers play a crucial role across the Coram Group of charities, giving their time, passion and skills to help us create better chances for children and young people. Our volunteer roles include our Coram Beanstalk Reading Helpers who support children to develop their reading confidence and ability, our Coram Family and Childcare Parent Champions, who talk to other parents about local support services available to families, and our Coram Voice Independent Visitors who provide reliable, consistent role models for a children in care.
Volunteers are also integral to our four-year programme Voices Through Time: The Story of Care, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Over 700 volunteers so far have given their time to transcribe materials from our Foundling Hospital archive so that they can be safeguarded for future generations. And our Story of Care ambassadors, care-experienced young people, are engaging with the archive and sharing their own experiences in creative ways through our #RealStoriesOfCare campaign.
In addition, Coram Beanstalk has been chosen as one of the partners for the BBC’s Make A Difference Happy Heads campaign which highlights opportunities to volunteer to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. During the campaign, Coram Beanstalk Chair and Reading Helper, Jill Pay, will be interviewed on BBC local radio to talk about Coram Beanstalk’s “reading for pleasure” approach which has been helping children to feel confident, successful and motivated for nearly fifty years, as well as sharing her experiences of volunteering directly with children. Listeners will also hear from Coram Beanstalk volunteer Christine Tooth who has been working online with children throughout the pandemic.
If you’d like to volunteer for Coram, find out more about all of our opportunities.