Volunteering
Volunteering at Sailability@Whitefriars can be an extremely rewarding, fulfilling, sociable, and enjoyable experience. Not only are you helping people with disabilities to experience and enjoy sailing in a safe environment, but you can enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the Cotswold Water Parks. The Club prides itself on being a friendly club, and you will soon get to know the other members of the team.
If you don’t have experience of working with people who have mental or physical disabilities, that is not a problem. We provide training, and you can work closely with our experienced volunteers until you are comfortable. You will not be expected to do anything that you are not comfortable doing.
You don’t have to be able to sail, but if you want to learn we can teach you. Even if you have a disability yourself, there there are many roles that you can contribute to:
- Meeting and greeting
- Organising and coordinating groups
- Chatting with our sailors to understand their needs and making them feel comfortable
- Some people have friends, family, or carers with them; they often also need support
- Helping in the kitchen with snacks and drink
- Fitting sailors with buoyancy aids
- Rigging and de-rigging boats
- Helping our sailors into and out of boats
- Using hoists
- Crewing and helming for our sailors
- Being part of the Safety Team, even spotting problems from shore
- Driving the power boat
- Training
- Boat maintenance
- Fund raising
- Admin tasks
- Become part of the Committee
As well as informal “on the job” training, we are running the RYA’s Volunteer Logbook Scheme which is a recognised system to help your progression as a valued Sailability Group Member, and to develop your skills. It is necessary as part of this to embark on various training courses; most of which we run at the club, for example Disability Awareness Training, First Aid, Safety boat training, and various levels of Sailing Instructor courses. It is not compulsory to do this.
We take the safety of our sailors and volunteers very seriously and have an Operating Manual which outlines our procedures and requirements. If this is of interest to you, this can be downloaded here.
Without our great team of volunteers this group cannot operate. We have ambitions to offer this experience to more disabled people. For this we need more volunteers, please!
If you would like to volunteer please download and complete the Volunteer Registration form.pdf and return to volunteer@sailabilityatwhitefriars.org.uk
