Transform the experience in your accommodation 🏠 Be a Hall Community Officer Sign Up Now

Register your interest now
L'Arche London
We're L'Arche, an international movement of communities for people with and without learning disabilities. L'Arche London, based in West Norwood, is made up of about 100 people with and without learning disabilities, some of whom live in our community houses and others who participate in our workshops or drama group. Joy, openness, and relationship is at the heart of our shared…
Description

Accompany our members on walks around our local area (West Norwood and Tulse Hill) and befriend people who see the world differently to you. If you enjoy walking or would like to do more exercise, and would like to make some friends and join a fun community, this is the perfect opportunity for you. No previous experience with people with learning disabilities or in care is required.

Walking with people is a lovely, lowkey way to get to know them. It gives you something to connect on and talk about without the pressure of a sit-down conversation. If you're trying to do some more exercise and also make new friends, this is the perfect way to achieve your goals. It would also give you the chance to join a fun intentional community with lots of events like parties and barbeques. At L'Arche, you are welcomed for who are, not what you can do.

Duties

Lots of our members love going on walks and being outside. You would meet the person at their house and then go for a walk for about an hour around local area. You might go to the West Norwood Cemetery or Brockwell Park, or walk around the local streets. You could also accompany members at our community walk around West Norwood Cemetery which would be a great way to get to know the wider community.

There is not a particularly high fitness level required. You would need to be able to walk for an hour, and some of our members are in wheelchairs so you might need to be able to push a wheelchair. But we walk slowly in L'Arche London!

Who will the volunteers be working with?
The volunteers will be supported by the Volunteer Coordinator but on a day to day basis they will work with the members with learning disabilities and the assistants who support our members.
Training
All volunteers receive a foundational level of training in health and safety and accompanying people with learning disabilities. There will be opportunities to receive additional training in first aid, sign language, autism, and health and safety.

Time commitment

We are a friendship community and it takes time to get to know people so we'd ask you to volunteer for at least an hour once a fortnight. This could be more often if you'd like.

The length of time you can support with this depends on you. We would love to have longer term volunteers who can commit to coming for a year or so. However, if this doesn't work for you or you're only around for a few months in London, get in touch and we'll work something out.

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.