How can you help support LGBT Age?
First and foremost, we need you to tell everybody you know about LGBT Age. We hope people will see publicity about the project, but word of mouth is very often the best way to reach people!
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LGBT Age also offer the following opportunities for volunteering and getting involved
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Befriending
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Organising Social Events
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Advocacy
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Involvement and Representation
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Publicity and Networking
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Fundraising
You can focus on a single role or get involved in more than one way. To find out more about volunteering in any of the above roles, please contact Garry McGregor for further information and an informal chat.
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Garry McGregor
LGBT Age Coordinator
LGBT Centre for Health and Wellbeing
9 Howe Street
Edinburgh EH3 6TE
Telephone: 0131 523 1107 (Direct line) / 0131 523 1100 (General office)
Email: garry@lgbthealth.org.uk
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Organising Social Events
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We need the help of born organisers to assist in putting together a calendar of social events aimed at LGBT people over 50. Social events will be open to all older LGBT people, whether they use other LGBT Age services or not.
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Volunteer organisers will work with staff as part of a team to organise events. Organisers will consult with older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, so that the programme of events reflects what people want.
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Volunteers will be given LGBT Centre induction training and will be invited to participate in ongoing LGBT Age training events if they wish.
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Whatever your age, if you are good at organising, planning events, entertaining, have contacts, are skilled at blagging discounts or have ideas, we would love to hear from you.
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If you are interested in being a volunteer, please complete the Volunteer Registration Form indicating your interest as 'LGBT Age Social Events' and return it to us.
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Befriending
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LGBT Age needs volunteer befrienders who can help improve someone’s life quality. As a volunteer, you will be given training, support and expenses.
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In addition to forming a rewarding relationship with an older LGBT person, this role offers great opportunities for learning and personal development, including the possibility of further training to take on other roles such as becoming a volunteer advocate.
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Becoming a volunteer befriender will entail the following:
• a commitment of a couple of hours per week or fortnight
• a minimum commitment of 6 months after training, to ensure continuity for the person you befriend
• willingness to undergo induction training and ongoing training, as well as attend peer support meetings
• undergoing an Enhanced Disclosure check, as you may be working with a vulnerable adult in their own home, and we therefore need to ensure the highest degree of personal integrity.
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As well as one-to-one guidance and support, there will be peer support meetings for volunteers; this will allow volunteers to stay in touch and to share ideas after their initial training.
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Volunteers can be any age (18+) and can be non-LGBT, though they must be able to demonstrate awareness and knowledge about LGBT issues in relation to working with LGBT people and an interest in older people and equality issues.
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We are currently recruiting for the first training course for befrienders and are keen to hear from anyone who might be interested. If this sounds like the kind of opportunity you are keen to pursue please get in touch to find out more.
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If you are interested in being a volunteer, please contact us (see above) or complete the Volunteer Registration Form indicating your interest as ‘LGBT Age befriending’ and return it to us.
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Advocacy
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We are seeking to recruit and train volunteers with relevant experience as LGBT Age advocates. We will be training experienced volunteer befrienders as advocates, but are also interested to hear from people with advocacy, advice or related experience and a strong interest in and knowledge about LGBT, equalities and older people’s issues.
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If you are interested in being a volunteer, please contact us (see above) or complete the Volunteer Registration Form indicating your interest as ‘LGBT Age advocacy’ and return it to us.
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Involvement and representation
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In order to tackle the invisibility of older LGBT people and raise awareness of the issues of LGBT ageing as widely as possible, we are looking for volunteers over 50 willing to represent the LGBT Age project in a number of contexts.
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This role may involve participation in community councils, neighbourhood partnerships, focus groups and steering groups, or could be a one-off representation at a conference or events around LGBT, ageing or equality issues. The role will require a degree of confidence as it will be necessary to be openly LGBT in these settings in order to fully represent the project.
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Training and support will be available and travel and other expenses will be reimbursed. Anyone who feels they could handle this challenge and wants to be our voice, should complete the Volunteer Registration Form indicating ‘LGBT Age involvement and representation’ as their area of interest.
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Publicity and networking
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Are you a whizz with words? Do you know your way around Photoshop or Publisher? Do you have great contacts on the scene and across the LGBT community? Are you happy to charm people into letting you distribute information in their venues? Do you have contacts in the media?
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If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions then we would love to have you join our publicity drive for LGBT Age.
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Volunteers will be asked to help raise awareness of the project and then sustain this awareness over the course of time. This can be anything from leaflet drops to banner designing, or from writing blogs to creating an LGBT Age newsletter.
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Volunteers will be given LGBT Centre training and will also be invited to attend LGBT Age ongoing training events.
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If you are interested in being a volunteer, please complete the Volunteer Registration Form indicating ‘LGBT Age publicity and networking’ as your area of interest.
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Fundraising
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If you would like to support the LGBT Age project, but simply don’t have the time or energy to volunteer, you can still show your support by making a regular donation to the project, organising a one-off fundraising event, choosing us for a charity event you are signed up for or supporting us as a corporate body, group or association. Big or small, your contribution will help us support older LGBT people.
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To make a regular contribution, please complete the Standing Order form and indicate you would like this donation to go to LGBT Age.
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