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Volunteering and participation

Volunteering with Brook gives you the opportunity to develop your skills and knowledge while fighting stigma and reducing health inequalities. Find out more about the types of volunteer roles we have at Brook.  

What does volunteering at Brook look like?

We have different ways of volunteering with Brook. We sometimes advertise roles in our education teams, clinical services, counselling services or research. We also have participation opportunities which are another way people can use their free time to support Brook, contribute to improving the sexual health sector and improve their skills, confidence and experience at the same time.

What is participation?

Participation means giving people the opportunity to get involved in decisions that affect them.

At Brook, volunteering through participation involves using your personal experience to actively be involved in decision making and creating measurable and positive change in Brook services.

Have your say about sexual health and wellbeing services and support Brook to help increase accessibility, fight stigma, drive innovation and challenge inequality.

How is Participation different to volunteering?
When you are a volunteer with Brook, you become a part of Brook, work alongside our staff, receive training and help to improve Brook using your skills and experience. In participation, you help improve Brook services from the outside – using your life experiences as someone that might use Brook services.

Learn more about participation

What are the benefits of volunteering?

However you volunteer, you will make an invaluable difference to our work, support others and there are great benefits for you too.

By volunteering for Brook, you will have the chance to:

  • Give something to the community
  • Increase your knowledge of a sexual health charity
  • Improve your professional skills
  • Meet other people who are interested in sexual health and wellbeing
  • Enhance your CV
  • Receive free training and regular support
  • Learn from, and work alongside, experienced staff

As well as impacting individuals, volunteering can make a difference to wider communities, such as:

  • Changing the narrative, fighting stigma and helping those who find their sexual and reproductive rights under attack
  • Making sure more young people receive accurate sexual health and wellbeing information
  • Increasing awareness of young people’s sexual health and wellbeing needs
  • Equipping people with skills and knowledge to support their employment

At Brook we really value the input of volunteers. They bring great insights, new ideas, personal experiences and often highlight gaps in our own knowledge and services.

They help us:

  • Increase our reach so we benefit more people in more areas.
  • Complete projects in a shorter amount of time, so people benefit from them sooner.
  • Spread the word and campaign on our behalf so more people hear about sexual health and what we are campaigning for.

All of this helps us develop and deliver a better service!

FAQs

The time commitment depends on which volunteer role you’re interested in. Some roles ask for a minimum of around 10 hours per month while others are more flexible to work around you. For example, you can get involved in our participation work on an infrequent basis, for example, completing short surveys about our web content every few months.

You can volunteer for Brook if you are over 16 although there are less opportunities available for this age group.

If you are under 18, we will need to get parental consent and permission from your school/college before you can volunteer with us.

We also have a 16-19 Participation Forum.

Check our vacancies

There is an informal interview for volunteer roles, these often take place online.

The interview is a chance for us to meet you and understand more about why you would like to volunteer at Brook and for you to learn more about the role and what it might involve.

If you’re invited to an interview, please don’t worry, we’re very friendly and you don’t need to prepare anything beyond thinking about any questions you might have and why you want the role.

If you need any additional help attending an interview we can support with this, please let us know via email volunteering@brook.org.uk

We aren’t currently able to offer work experience for school students.

We add new opportunities to our vacancies webpage as and when they arise. Other than advertised roles, we are currently unable to accept volunteer enquiries. Otherwise there are still ways you can get involved with Brook:

  • Get involved with ad hoc participation opportunities
  • Fundraise for Brook and be an advocate of our work – Brook will never stop fighting until everyone has access to safe, confidential, accessible healthcare, no matter who they are. Your support, whether financial or on social media, can help us achieve this mission.

Some of our volunteer roles are digital or hybrid based depending on the role and location. Check our current vacancies to see if there are any current digital opportunities.

A lot of our participation opportunities are open to everyone in the UK and most of our participation work takes place online through Zoom calls, surveys and online focus groups but there are some opportunities that take place in person.