Volunteering for Hospice Whanganui is life-changing!
Hospice Whanganui supports patients to live as fully as possible until the end of their life, and supports their close circle of people during the illness and bereavement journey, we could not do this without the support of all of our volunteers.
We have four main areas of volunteering, our Retail teams, our Fundraising & Events team, our Patient Support teams and our Hospice Facility teams. Our volunteers might participate a few times a year or a few times a week, collectively our volunteers work over 20,000 hours to generate essential funding, maintain our facilities and directly support our patients.
Opportunities
There are various opportunities available to volunteers through Hospice Whanganui. All volunteers are required to undertake training (components will vary depending on the role you have) and attend orientation which introduces you to our vision, values, philosophy, services, culture, and our way of being. By the end of the orientation you will have an understanding of Hospice’s holistic approach to death, dying, grief, and bereavement.
All volunteers undergo a police check and are required to provide references.
Your contribution to Hospice Whanganui as a volunteer benefits our community no matter how much time you can spare, or what role you have. Most of our volunteers work in rostered positions although with some roles, the timeframes are more flexible. How much time you can give and when, are things to consider when chatting about volunteering options.
Some of the roles our volunteers undertake include:
- Retail outlets – We have three retail shops across Whanganui, full to the brim with interesting, useful and unique items. We have plenty of volunteering opportunities from sorting and pricing to customer service and window displays, minor repairs on small items, as well as testing appliances before sale. Our specialty areas including books, toys, electronics, retro fashion, decor, jewellery, linen, furniture and more. If you have a positive attitude, want to find new friends, and want to use your skills and talents to support our Whanganui community, this could be an opportunity for you. We have both morning and afternoon shifts available Monday to Friday. We also have 4-hour shifts until 1pm on Saturday, these could be just once or twice a month.
- Delivery and Pick-up – We have a busy team visiting homes throughout Whanganui, doing pick-ups and delivery for our retail shops. A reasonable level of fitness is required, and as you will be meeting with our customers and donors a friendly attitude would be great. Our team work well together and will support you and provide any training or guidance you need.
- Fundraising and Events – Hospice Whanganui is only partially funded by government, we raise funds throughout the year to continue to provide our wrap-around palliative services. This is a great opportunity to make an occasional contribution to Hospice, whether it’s collecting donations or putting up posters, setting up tables or greeting guests, we have roles to suit you all. When we have an event coming up we will get in touch and you can let us know if you’re available this time, it’s as easy as that. You will also be enrolled as a Hospice Whanganui volunteer, receive our regular newsletter, and be invited to join in our social events.
- Gardening – Our gardeners are an enthusiastic team who take pride in caring for our gardens, maintaining the garden beds, shrubbery and smaller trees. Most of the gardening is easily done, although we could use some helpers with strong hands for pruning, our gardeners do not work at heights. Our gardeners have wide experience and will gladly share knowledge and advice, morning tea is a time for lively discussion on all things gardening.
- Handyman tasks – We can always use some assistance with maintenance and repairs at Hospice, and this role would suit anyone with general fix-it skills. Jobs can include furniture repair, minor building maintenance, some basic car maintenance, and odd jobs as needed. It could either be a regular monthly contribution or a more casual arrangement, we’re flexible on arrangements for this role. If you can help out with a few small jobs you will make a big difference!
- Biographers – Our biographers are matched with patients who want to reflect on who they are and give others insight into how they lived their life, how they felt about the world around them, how their life has changed over time and what experiences have shaped them as a person. Training and templates are provided and digital recorders are available, meetings are on a regular basis and are usually held in the patient’s home. This is a great opportunity to support our patients on a one-to-one basis, perfect for any compassionate writers out there.
- Companions – We are exploring introducing Companion volunteers to our wrap-around services for patients. This is a non-medical role and doesn’t include personal services, it is simply to provide companionship for an hour or two on a regular basis to people who are in the care of Hospice. During this time you may be chatting, playing cards, sorting photos, or any number of activities that support your person. Through interview assessments we will be matching patients and carers who share interests and are overall likely to enjoy their time together, full training and support will be given. If you would like to be involved, please let us know and we’ll keep you updated on this role.
Please contact Kisu, your Volunteer Coordinator, with any questions you have –
Ph: 06 349 0080 ext – 246
Email: mikisuh@hospicewhanganui.org.nz
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members” – Coretta Scott King