Seasons greetings!

The countdown to Christmas has officially begun. And whilst it's going to be a very different festive season to the one we're used to, there's still plenty of ways you can get involved with volunteering. Read on for all the details as we take a sleigh bell ride into the Oxford volunteering scene...

What do we do?

We connect employees with exciting volunteering opportunities in Oxford City. And as a fully funded service there is currently no cost to employers.

When people first want to volunteer it can be tricky for them to know where to start. Cue the Team Oxford Skills Audit. We use this to explore what skills an employee has, so we can match them to volunteering opportunities. Exciting no?

Once a team of employees has completed their Skills Audit, we collate their information into a report that summarises the responses. It's a great way of learning more about your colleagues' skills and abilities and is a good tool for offering a voluntary organisation a menu of potential help.

If you'd like to hear more do get in touch with Hannah Mackie, Team Oxford Project Coordinator via hello@team-oxford.co.uk

At the end of October around ten Bouygues employees helped Aspire to get two houses ready for occupation. 
 
One is a 6-bed house for women who’ve been homeless and are on the road to recovery. The other provides winter accommodation for people who’ve been sleeping rough. It offers 17 rooms and is funded and coordinated by Oxford City Council under the ‘SWEP’ (Severe Weather Emergency Protocol). 
 
The volunteers from Bouygues said “We were delighted to be able to work with Aspire to provide volunteers to support another project and look forward to continuing to work with the team from Aspire in the future.”

If you’d like to chat with us about building up your company’s employee programme, do get in touch.

Several of our partners are putting together Amazon wish-lists. Popular with charities at this time of year, wish lists allow anyone to purchase an item on the list and have it sent directly to the charity. 

We’ll let you know as soon as the lists are finalised. You can expect things like Christmas presents for children, tablet devices to help people get online and gifts for people who’ve been sleeping rough and are now in one of the houses recently refurbished by Bouygues.

Did you catch our Team Oxford video filmed for Oxford Health's Healthfest? A handy short clip that takes a look at some of the health benefits of volunteering! If you missed it take a look... 

Aspire Oxford's Enterprise Development Programme is for people who are overcoming a range of challenges and want to find out about self-employment. They receive intensive support to come up with and develop their self-employment ideas.

The project needs volunteers who can share expertise in areas as diverse as building a basic website, starting a Facebook business page, designing business cards and getting started with selling through Amazon. Take a look at our blog post here for all the details!

If you can offer a one-off support session or longer-term help, please get in touch.

Here are some fantastic volunteer opportunities with our friends over at Oxford Hub:

• Together Neighbours- residents who can help a neighbour with shopping, prescriptions, and other helpful neighbourly things. We particularly need volunteers in Blackbird Leys, Barton and Rose Hill!
• Phone Links Pod leaders- volunteers to support and lead a group of Phone Link callers. Contact miriam@oxfordhub.org if you're interested in finding out more about the role.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters- mentoring a child weekly with Big Brothers Big Sisters.
• FELLOW tutors- 1:1 EAL conversation support for recent migrants with FELLOW