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Solidarity Sports
When Solidarity Sports was established in 2007, we aimed to engage children in sports--a fun, accessible way to bring kids together and promote good health and wellness. Solidarity Sports has harnessed the transformative power of play to nurture disadvantaged children recovering from complex trauma. We support children's healing through sports, healthy eating, arts, educational trips, mentorship…
Description

We are a charity that harnesses the transformative power of play and exercise to help vulnerable children recover from complex trauma. Our goal is to nurture the confidence of every child we work with and develop valuable life skills to help them reach their full potential. 

As a volunteer, you will support our children at Solidarity Sports projects during school holidays. In practice this may be running through playgrounds with our children, supporting them as they try bouldering for the first time, ice-skating, and many more fun activities. Volunteers will build a positive, trusting relationship with our children, and help them feel special and valued at all times during our projects. 

During the summer holidays, from 28th Jul - 22nd Aug 2025 (Monday-Friday 10am-4pm), we are going to be located in a secondary school and will hold a variety of fun activities, from tennis to drama to arts and crafts! From 26th-29th Aug 2025 (Tuesday-Friday, 10am-4pm), we will bring our children to various venues across London.

We have projects every school holiday, in Christmas, Easter, Summer, and Half-Terms, Monday to Friday, from approximately 10am-4pm.

For this project, you will be assigned to a bubble group which is according to children’s ages (e.g. green bubble for the youngest children), and you will support that bubble throughout the day. We ask that you bring your ENERGY, passion and enthusiasm to volunteering! Please also take initiative to help out with various tasks.

Your team leader will assign you 1-2 children as partners for the day. We maintain a good ratio of 1 adult : 2 children so we can give our children as much attention and care as possible. We ask that you bring your ENERGY, passion and enthusiasm to volunteering! Please also take initiative to help out with various tasks.

Location: A secondary school in West London. The volunteer coordinator will contact you with details of meeting point in due course.

Reimbursement: Travel is reimbursed up to £15 and lunch up to £4.50 with receipts provided.

Person specification: You MUST have a passion for working with children. Our children have been through a lot in their short lives; it is vital we listen and give them a safe and fun space to express themselves. We want to create a happy, loving environment for them.

Requirements: All volunteers will be DBS checked before volunteering. We will help you obtain an enhanced DBS check for free. If you have lived in the UK for less than 3 months you will have to obtain an equivalent background/criminal check from your previous country of residence. 

Flexibility:

This is a very flexible commitment – you can do 1 day in this week, 2 days, or all 5 days if you’re keen!

We do ask however that volunteers commit to the 10am-4pm time slot, as you will be paired with two children during this project, and if you are not able to stay for that amount of time there will not be enough volunteers to adequately supervise the children (there should be at 1 volunteer:2 children ratio at all times). 

Onboarding: After signing up, we will organise a quick 30-minute call with you to discuss volunteering logistics and your motivations. We will also help you get an enhanced DBS check for free if you don’t already have one.

Start date details: Mon-Fri 28th July - 29th August (except 25th August bank holiday)

Duties

Your role is to provide support to our children during project activities, e.g. encouraging them to learn a new skill, cheering them on, playing with them. 

Your team leader will assign you 1-2 children as partners for the day. We maintain a good ratio of 1 adult : 2 children so we can give our children as much attention and care as possible.

We ask that you bring your ENERGY, passion and enthusiasm to volunteering! Please also take initiative to help out with various tasks.


 

Who will the volunteers be working with?
Most of our children are referred to us by social services or a women's refuge, and many are refugees. They have gone through significant trauma and adverse life events despite their young age. Some of our children also have special educational needs.
Training
We have an onboarding process where we go through logistics of volunteering and answer any questions. We have a condensed safeguarding policy that all volunteers must read, along with an onboarding document with frequently asked questions. For training, we hold a volunteer onboarding training every few months for our new volunteers to learn more about the charity, and important safeguarding points (e.g. responding to signs of abuse).

Time commitment

This is a very flexible commitment – you can do 1 day in this week, 2 days, or all 5 days if you’re keen!
We do ask however that volunteers commit to the 10am-4pm time slot, as you will be paired with two children during this project, and if you are not able to stay for that amount of time there will not be enough volunteers to adequately supervise the children (there should be at 1 volunteer:2 children ratio at all times). 
Application deadline

This organisation is one of our community partner organisations.

Like all volunteer recruiters we work with, they have signed up to our service standards, agreeing to abide by our policy on partnership working to keep you safe and supported whilst you volunteer.

You’ll never be out of pocket for volunteering through us – with in-London travel expenses to and from your volunteering guaranteed.

In addition, the team here at Students’ Union UCL Volunteering Service is here to support you throughout your volunteering journey – you can get in touch with us at any time.