Volunteering Update June 2008     Hello Following your feedback our newsletter is now more focused on volunteer opportunities. We hope you like it. This month we've got ideas for volunteering holidays as well as inspiration from the 10th Refugee Week for volunteering for refugees and human rights issues. If none of these take your fancy you can always contact me, your local volunteer centre or search Do-It for other opportunities that suit you. If you're in London you can also use London Events Volunteer Calendar. This is a new website where event organisers in London will post information for volunteers they'll need. I'm new to TimeBank and I'm here to help with ideas and advice on finding your perfect volunteering opportunity. Sam Bond TimeBank Volunteer Support Officer s.bond@timebank.org.uk Hot Opportunities Volunteering holidays   Residential volunteering opportunities are a great way to get stuck in and have fun volunteering. Sense offer week long holidays across the UK for people of all ages who are deafblind. They need volunteers to enable them to fully enjoy their holiday and various outings and outdoor activities. The National Trust needs volunteers for 2-7 day working holidays to help maintain their properties and gardens. You could be doing anything from herding goats to painting a lighthouse. Vitalise provides short breaks for disabled people and carers. They need residential volunteers for one or two week periods to support their guests. BTCV Conservation Holidays offer weekend or week long group volunteering experiences. You could be making friends while mending fences or clearing woodland in stunning locations across the country. Over The Wall is a residential camp for children who are affected by serious or life threatening illnesses. They need volunteers to care for campers during their week long stay. Refugees and human rights The 10th annual Refugee Week (16th-22nd June) will see cultural events held across the UK to celebrate the contribution of refugees. This year Refugee Week is running a Small Actions campaign. You could take positive action by learning how to be friendly in a different language to newcomers to your town. Find out what you can do to make a difference right now or add your own action. The Refugee Council needs volunteers for a range of opportunities such as staffing information phone lines, teaching English or giving talks about Refugee issues.   You can take action online now by supporting a human rights campaign with Amnesty International. Or if you'd like to fundraise and campaign with other people, you can join one of their local or student groups. Or you could even volunteer at their main offices, where they need volunteers to carry out research or act as translators. Refugee Action has volunteer roles at offices across the country. You could do anything from administration to becoming a volunteer befriender for one of their clients. The British Red Cross needs volunteers to befriend refugees and offer valuable support and advice to ease the process of settling into a new environment. Here at TimeBank TimeBank has run its own refugee mentoring project, Time Together, since 2002. We are not currently recruiting volunteers but for an insight into being a mentor, read the diary of one of TimeBank's refugee mentors on the Guardian website.   And finally... TimeBank are delighted to have been invited to be one of the partners in developing the 2gether festival. The festival brings all sorts of people working in digital technology together to talk about how technology could support making a positive difference. It's a great chance for us at TimeBank to get thinking about how technology such as the Internet could be used for volunteering. Hopefully we'll have some new ideas to share with you soon.     Thanks to you all who have been in touch. If you have any feedback on our newsletter, our service or want to share your volunteering story with us please get in touch with me - Sam (s.bond@timebank.org.uk) TimeBank tackles social issues by finding ways for people to give their time that inspire them and match their lives. Registered Charity No.1073831