Queen's Award for Voluntary Service 2005

 

Home Find Work Volunteering Our Services About Us Contact Us

 

Welcome to the Volunteer Centre West Berkshire web site. Whether you're looking for an opportunity to volunteer or are interested in any of the services that we provide, please take a look around at what we have to offer.

 

 Want to volunteer?
Just click on the 'do-it.org.uk' logo and answer a few simple questions to see a list of volunteer opportunities in your area.
It's that simple! The entrance to the Volunteer Centre from Northbrook Street, between Currys.digital and Lime

 

  Find voluntary work online

The national Do-it database of volunteer opportunities allows you to match your skills with volunteer opportunities in your area.

 

  Volunteering

All about volunteering

Volunteer driving

Driving a Handybus

Corporate community involvement

Millennium Volunteers

Latest vacancies (July 2008)

 

  Our services

What we can do for you

Registering your organisation and opportunities

Car scheme

Handybus and Newbury 'Chairman' vehicle

Shopmobility

 

  About us

Introducing Volunteer Centre West Berkshire

People

We are 'Unsung Heroes'

Acknowledgements

Donate

Annual Report 2008

 

  Contact us

Call in and see us

Write

Phone

Email

 

... and everything else

Local events: Community Responders

Local events: Hydrotherapy Pool

Past events

Press and media information

Disclaimer

 

V1.20, last updated 03 July 2008

 

 


 

Volunteer to save lives!
 

Volunteer Centre West Berkshire are are supporting two exciting initiatives aimed to involve volunteers in schemes which will help to save lives in their communities. 

 
Community Responders
 

Community Responders are people who volunteer to help save lives in their community. There is good evidence to suggest that if people are trained to help someone whilst the ambulance is on the way, then more lives are saved.

Community Responders undergo a two-day, specially designed training course provided by the Royal Berkshire Ambulance NHS Trust in the essential skills needed for the role.

Learn Life-Saving Skills

The skills you will be taught include resuscitation techniques and the giving of oxygen. One of the most important pieces of equipment carried by the Responders is an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Defibrillators are designed to deliver a shock to a person whose heart has stopped, but unlike the units carried by Paramedics, the AED unit talks the Community Responder through the process and will not allow the Responder to deliver a shock to someone who does not need one.

Typically, Community Responders operate as a member of a scheme. A scheme is a group of 10 - 15 people who all live and / or work within about a 5 minute radius of each other. They are led by a member of the group who acts as coordinator. The group meets regularly to discuss call outs and also to plan when they can each be available.

Saving lives in your community...

If you are the duty Community Responder then you hold the duty phone and Responder bag with AED. When a call is received by ambulance control they send the ambulance and then, if it is a suitable call, they alert the duty Community Responder who lives or works close to where the emergency has occurred. The Community Responder then drives at normal road speed and provides assistance until the ambulance arrives.

A recent study in Canada shows that for every minute you wait for defibrillation when your heart stops you lose about 20% chance of survival. So a Community Responder arriving just two minutes before the ambulance could make a 40% difference to a person’s chance of survival.

Obviously it is a challenging role, but Community Responders are volunteers from all walks of life united by a common aim - to help save lives in the area where they live. If you drive, are over 18 and are reasonably fit, then why not see if there is a scheme operating in your area today!

 
Volunteer Fire Prevention Officers
 

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service are recruiting a number of community volunteers across West Berkshire to help promote their fire safety initiatives within their own communities through talks and manning their presence at events.

In this completely new position you will work in pairs to be a bridge between your village and their services, raising awareness and accessing otherwise difficult to reach sections of society such as the isolated, the elderly and low income. 

They hope that with your help they can offer free home safety advice to these groups which will result in a drop in house fires across the region. They expect further opportunities and developments to occur over the coming months so there is scope for this role to develop as much or as little as you wish.

Volunteers need to be confident and friendly, and enjoy communicating with individuals and groups. You must have own transport and have regular access to email.

They are initially looking to recruit in these key areas: Lambourn, Hungerford, East/West Ilsley and Compton. Ideally volunteers will live within these communities and they are hoping to recruit a pair to serve each area.

For more information: