Our volunteers come from all walks of life.
Many have personal experience of struggling to learn to read, or they’ve worked in a profession where they understand how critical this skill is. Others simply want to share their joy of reading.
Whatever your reason, you can help improve people’s life chances by volunteering with us.
We wouldn’t be able to carry out Shannon Trust activity in prisons without our amazing volunteers.
You can help train mentors, keep our regional managers up to date with activities, offer administrative support to the team, plus much more.
If you have the time to volunteer, read more about the opportunities on offer:
Prison volunteers nurture the growth of the Shannon Trust in their prison. They help unlock the power of reading by offering advice, guidance and support to prison staff and mentors.
Area administrators are an invaluable part of our team. They provide administrative support to our area coordinators and teams, organising and minuting area meetings. They're also an important link in how we evidence the impact of Shannon Trust, prompting and following up data and monthly reports from our prison volunteers.
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Area coordinators support and coordinate a team of prison volunteers. They help recruit and induct new volunteers and are the first point of contact for advice and support for them.
Thank you for your interest in joining our in prison volunteer team.
The closing date for applications to attend our next round of training is 26 January 2025.
We will respond to all applications. Successful applicants will be invited to an interview between 17 to 28 February. This is an opportunity for you to meet our regional team, for us to find out more about you and to share more information about the volunteering role.
You will be given high quality training to prepare you for volunteering with Shannon Trust. This takes place over 4 training sessions and via our online training portal, and includes an induction to the prison where you will be volunteering .
We ask that volunteers aim to complete the training in one course as this means that you will be ready to start actively volunteering.
The next training sessions for volunteering for people applying to be a prison based volunteer will take place:
4 March, 10am to 1pm (via Zoom)
11 March 10am to 1pm (via Zoom)
18 March 10am to 1pm (via Zoom)
Prison induction visit between 19 March to 7 April, arranged individually
8 April, 10am to 4pm (in person session, London)
Please check you can attend the dates prior to applying.
Shannon Trust is working with community partners to enhance our support to learners as they leave prison. This will enable them to continue learning on release and also to reach others in the community in touch with probation services or at risk of offending.
By becoming a reading coach, you will enable people to learn basic reading skills in a flexible way, so that day to day tasks like filling in forms or reading a bus timetable become easier.
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As a Shannon Trust reading coach you will work directly with people with low literacy, helping them to improve their reading through the delivery of Turning Pages sessions both on a face to face basis and through the use of technology.
If you have skills that could benefit Shannon Trust's business support team, such as communications, fundraising, HR, IT and resources, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch to discuss opportunities.
Get in touch
If you have any further questions, get in touch at volunteering@shannontrust.org.uk
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