1. Introduction
Brinsley Animal Rescue is managed and run solely by volunteers, every aspect of running the charity from day-to-day activities like cleaning out the animals, to fundraising, animal rehabilitation, administration to maintaining our vehicles and equipment is carried out by our team of motivated, well organised dedicated volunteers.
Volunteering helping animals can be very rewarding, but sometimes be physically and emotionally demanding. Each day the animals depend on us, so we require people who are both reliable and dependable, who are willing to turn up early, work hard, no matter what the weather. Come rain or shine, our animal friends still need to be cared for. o volunteer with us, previous experience is a benefit, but it is not necessary, being reliable and motivated is a more important quality, we will teach you how to help our animals. In return you should enjoy your time with us, amongst friends and amazing animals.
We encourage an open-minded, friendly and welcoming environment, we welcome volunteers from all walks of life
As we have a huge variety of animals, it is a unique opportunity to gain a wide variety of experience and learn. One day we might be clipping the nails of rabbits, the next bTB testing our cattle herd, and everything in between.
2. Volunteering Essentials
Our animal friends depend on us volunteers, we don’t have staff and so the qualities that are essential to volunteering with us are as follows;
Reliability – If a volunteer is absent on an agreed shift, this puts a lot of pressure on other volunteers on shift as the animals still need to be cared for. We understand that sometimes there are good reasons why people can’t attend when they said they would, but we do need people to do their best to show up when agreed. It doesn’t matter how hard its raining or the wind is blowing, we still need to clean out, check and fee all of our animals so we need our volunteers to show up.
Age – We have a lot of large free ranging animals such as horses and cattle, as we are all volunteers, we are not therefore able to offer volunteer places to persons under 16, other than organised School Work Experience.
Supervisor – As we are run solely by volunteers, we can only provide supervision during the induction and training process. For any volunteers who requires ongoing support and / or supervision, such as from a guardian or carer, the person providing such support is also required to complete the our induction process and provide the ongoing support throughout any volunteering. We are not able to offer places for Duke of Edinburgh persons under 16.
Medical Fitness – The activities are moderate, you’ll be moving animal bedding in wheelbarrows, occasionally carrying sacks of feed etc. You don’t need to be super fit, you can take activities at your own pace, it’s not a race. As long as your relatively mobile and fit, it’s an enjoyable way to help exercise.
We do not want people to put themselves at risk. If you have any concerns about your medical fitness to do physical work and be with animals, we advise that you speak to your GP before applying to volunteer.
If you would like to speak to a Trustee in private to discuss any medial issues, concerns or issues we need to be aware of, this can be arranged. We will do all that we can to accommodate you, without putting yourself or others at risk.
Experience – We are not specifically looking for people with experience of handling or caring for animals, but you do need to be comfortable around them, small, wild and very large. We need people who are not put off by hard, mucky work and who are enthusiastic and reliable.
Clothing – You need to come dressed appropriately for the weather and the likely tasks, generally you will get dirty, so bring your scruffs, Wellington boots and waterproofs.
4. Longer Term Volunteering
As all volunteers need to go through an induction and training programme which takes time, we need volunteers who can commit to regular morning shifts and can commit to help us for the longer term, 5 months or more, not a few weeks.
Our volunteers aim to complete a morning shift a week, arriving around 7am and finishing around midday, we need people to be on site for at lest 2 hours. Although we need help at the weekends, we give priority to persons who can offer help weekday mornings.
The volunteer positions are as follows;
- Pet and Farm animals Volunteering
- Wildlife Hospital Volunteering
- Maintenance and Project Team
5. Shorter Term Volunteering
We can occasionally support shorter term volunteer such as work experience from School or work placements for higher education.
6. Questions & Answers
Q. What age do I need to be?
Other than organised School Work Experience (by arrangement ) the minimum age for volunteering is 16.
Q. Do you offer apprenticeships or paid work?
Everyone at the sanctuary is an unpaid volunteer, we do not employ any staff.
Q. Do you offer places for Duke of Edinburgh?
Unfortunately we are not able to offer volunteering places for DoE.
Q. Can I volunteer in the wildlife hospital?
Working with wildlife in our hospital requires a lot of additional supervision and training and therefore we are only able to offer volunteering opportunities to persons with existing wildlife rehabilitation experience or our existing volunteers, that have been with us for sometime and proved themselves to be reliable and regular.
Q. Do you offer free accommodation?
We do not provide accommodation for volunteers.
Q. Can I volunteer if I have a health condition?
We try to be as accommodating as we can. Should you have any concerns regarding any medical conditions, we recommend that you first seek medial advice. If any condition restricts what you can do, you can request to talk privately with a Trustee regarding any questions, concerns or limitations, we aim to accommodate, where we are not putting others animals at risk.