We are inviting anyone who thinks they might like to volunteer at The Scrap Space in Brighton or Shoreham to come along to one of our volunteering open days to experience spending time in the space and chat to current volunteers over free tea and cake.

You can come to us in Community Base in Brighton on Tuesday 22nd September between 5 and 7pm and in The Circular Space in Shoreham on Sunday 4th October between 3 and 5pm. You don't need to let us know you're coming but if you're definitely planning to, we'd appreciate an email to thescrapspace@gmail.com to let us know so we have an idea of numbers. Attached is a flyer about the open days and some more general information about what volunteering with us involves

The Scrap Space: Volunteering

We have two types of volunteering roles in both Shoreham and Brighton: casual scrap sorter and weekly staffer.

Usually weekly staffers have started off as casual scrap sorters and have demonstrated enthusiasm, reliability and general competence and have expressed a desire to get more involved, resulting in an invitation to take on a staffing shift. Occasionally people will start off straightaway as a weekly staffer.

We also from time to time have one off days when we welcome volunteers to help us with a particular short term project (e.g. moving in, decorating, putting on a fabric jumble sale).

For both roles we may ask for a character reference. Volunteers must adhere to our policies.

Perks of volunteering

- feel good for helping reduce waste

- feel satisfied about getting things tidier and nicely arranged

- meet like minded people and potential new friends

- feel a warm glow when you observe customers’ happy reactions

- unlimited free hot drinks and squash

- first peak at new donations!

- experience being part of a social enterprise and if you wish, dealing with the public, which may help with future roles

- obtain a reference for future roles

- fulfil requirements of programmes such as Duke of Edinburgh award scheme and the International Baccalaureat

Casual Scrap Sorter

Minimum commitment required: none!

You don’t need to let us know in advance that you are coming, always come in the same time slot or let us know if you can’t make it after planning to be there. Having said that, we find many people do like to commit to coming on a regular weekly basis even though this isn’t required.

Duties:

Any time we are open, help sort, tidy and put away donations. Be prepared to either take on a specific small job (e.g. empty a particular delivery, sort out a particular messy tub) or use your initiative to improve something that is bugging you or tidy up particular materials that interest you. There are always a variety of jobs that need doing involving differing amounts of manual labour and strength (e.g. testing pens sitting at a table vs moving boxes of varying weights around) and also differing amounts of specialist knowledge (e.g. general tidying vs categorising fabric by what it is made of).

Weekly Staffer

Minimum commitment required: 2 or 3 hours a week in school term times

If you are not limited to school term times, great, but as we recognise that some people are, we have different opening hours in term times and school holidays.

Duties include:

- Opening up and closing up.

- Explaining to new customers how things work – room layouts, membership options, orange buckets, where the scrap comes from, how to donate scrap.

- Checking membership cards – in particular the expiry date in case membership needs renewing.

- Taking payments for memberships, making a note of these on the relevant Google Docs spreadsheet and writing out membership cards.

- Doing your best to help customer queries such as asking for a particular item or where things are or wanting ideas for materials for a particular project.

- Taking in scrap donations, weighing them and noting on the relevant Google Doc Spreadsheet.

- If time, putting donations away.

- Making casual scrap sorters feel welcome and encouraging people expressing an interest in volunteering.

- If you make yourself a drink, offering any others volunteers present a drink.g

Email thescrapspace@gmail.com with any questions.