JOIN US!

Join us individually

Whatever your wishes and your enthusiasms, there’s a task within RSVP West waiting for you. We need volunteers in all communities to help in every conceivable way. But in particular we’re looking for people both to run existing projects and also to create and organise new ones that tap into the latent skills and available time of older people all over the Region.

In particular, please look through our current specific needs and also our general list of projects. Almost every project on this list needs more volunteers to sustain and enlarge its activities. You also have unlimited opportunities for you to start a new project where you live or to match your special interests.

We encourage you to donate your time for the benefit of your local community, but not your money. RSVP membership is free and we will ensure your out-of-pocket expenses are reimbursed, either by the organisation being served or in some other appropriate way. All RSVP members are covered by personal accident and third party insurance. We maintain an equal-opportunities policy — for the details download our equal-opportunities statement (PDF 55kB).

Contact us by post, telephone, or e-mail for more information.

Or, to apply to join RSVP West, download our membership form, print it, fill it in and post it to the RSVP West Region office. (The form is in PDF format: if you don’t have it, you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader program to view and print it.)

Join us as a group

Volunteer groups based on local enthusiasm to meet a local need frequently work in semi-isolation. Though they are firmly linked to the communities in which they operate, working independently can create difficulties for them — they often lack the specialist skills needed to promote themselves, find new volunteers and raise essential funds.

By becoming associated with RSVP West, local groups can gain access to many services, such as sources of authoritative information and practical assistance. They gain benefits from working with and becoming friends and colleagues of other groups doing similar work for their own communities. Best of all, by being linked to a particularly active region of a national organisation, groups can network with other organisations working in the volunteer field and can better work with and influence local statutory bodies. Any group that joins RSVP West retains its existing management structures and ways of working.

Groups often struggle to pay for the essential insurance needed to cover the work of their volunteers. The problem has got much worse in recent years as premiums have risen sharply. To take just one case, there are a number of local car schemes in North Somerset which help to transport patients and relatives to hospitals, surgeries, and the like. They pay the cost of doing so through local financial sponsorship. The rapidly rising cost of personal insurance is a major worry for them.

They have solved the problem by affiliating themselves and their volunteers with RSVP West, which costs nothing. By doing so, they automatically become covered by the free personal and public liability insurance policy provided to RSVP volunteers. So far a dozen groups have affiliated in this way and others are likely to follow.

We encourage voluntary groups throughout our region to join us. In the first instance, please contact the Regional Coordinator, who will put you in touch with your area organiser.

© 2003–12 RSVP West. Page last updated on 17 January 2012.