VOLUNTEER AT DALWOOD SPILSTEAD

Volunteer Roles Available at Dalwood Spilstead

The Spilstead Service provides a therapeutic preschool offering intensive support and therapy to children from 1 year of age who may experience emotional, social, behavioural or developmental concerns.
Each classroom is small, with a maximum of 5 children, and tailored to meet the individual needs of each child.
An early childhood educator works with the class, and a volunteer works alongside the educator, supporting their work in practical ways and ensuring adequate adult support for children.
As a preschool volunteer, you would work in a small team of volunteers allocated to a regular shift one day a week, from 9.00 to 2.30.
On the job training is provided in addition to regular workshop days throughout the year.

Are you interested to support a young family a few hours a week in their own home as a mother mentor?
The families we work with are often isolated and lack the support young families to be the best parents they can be.
Our trained and supported home volunteers work alongside a family, providing much needed emotional support, helping them to increase their parenting capacity, confidence and reducing their sense of social isolation.
These volunteers work with close support and supervision, visiting a family for 2 hours per week,
A compulsory training course is provided and ongoing workshops and peer support groups are provided following initial training.

Are you a retired primary school teacher with a commitment to continuing to support a positive school experience for vulnerable children?
We know that many children entering infants school benefit from additional support in the classroom to support their learning and give them much needed one on one support, just an hour each week makes a big difference to a vulnerable child.
Close support is provided by Spilstead services staff and ongoing training is provided.

The focus of much of the work at the Spilstead Service is to provide support to parents through group work programs, providing both educational and leisure-based activities for parents.
Our crèche volunteers are needed for a few hours on a Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning or Friday morning.
These days may change according to needs that arise with the group work program.
Crèche volunteers form a small team of volunteers caring for young children, supporting parents to attend the groups provided.
Regular workshops and training are offered throughout the year.

One of the difficulties for families attending our services is the restricted accessibility to public transport.
Transport volunteers assist by collecting parents and children together to bring them to preschool or other centre based activities.
The service provides a vehicle for use by the volunteer in transport duties.
This role may involve either a morning or afternoon for an hour or two around preschool drop off and pick up times.