Maya’s Community Support Centre is a volunteer led organisation. From the top to the bottom everyone involved with the Community Interest Company is a volunteer. We are so successful at what we do because of the hard work, determination, compassion and dedication of our volunteers who work round the clock to deliver a wide range of services. Below explains some of the volunteering opportunities we have, if you are interested please Click Here to Get in Touch :
Free Shop Volunteers
The Free Shop on the High Street in Herne Bay is the only high street shop in the world with no till. The essence of the Free Shop is to support people going through the cost of living crisis, volunteering in the free shop makes a huge difference to many peoples lives. The Key Part to this role is sorting through donations, keeping the shelves and rails full of stock. Helping to keep the shop tidy, removing any rubbish and clearing up and spillages. Keeping communal areas tidy. Helping to open up and close the shop, moving donated items from the community café to the Free Shop. Also Electrical items that come in get moved to our store for testing so it may involve delivering and collecting these from the other end of the high street from time to time.
The Free Shop receives 100s of bags of donations and 100s of customers everyday (Monday – Saturday). The amount of donations that come each day have saved over 7,400 tonnes of CO2 in just one year (in 2023) from going into the atmosphere which gives you an idea of how busy the shop can get. The team that volunteer in the free shop work really hard to keep the donations processed and put out on the shop floor and to keep the shop tidy and clean as there is a constant stream of visitors all through the day.
A successful volunteer in this role , greets each customer with a friendly , open minded attitude. Staying calm under pressure and no matter how busy it is thanking every person for their donation. Being reliable and responding to messages on the community whatsapp group when extra help is needed. Approach customers with kindness and understanding that they maybe going through a hard time, remembering our core principles of no judgement, equality and compassion. Also if someone can’t find something keeping a note of it in the day book and when one comes in contacting them.
Community Cafe and Support Centre
As we are a fast growing organisation, we are always happy when new volunteers join our busy community café family. Maya’s Community Support Centre has a Free Shop nearby and a furniture store and operates a food bank (long life food during the day and fresh supermarket surplus food in the evening). This role is helping in the self service community café, showing visitors how to make drinks and provide a friendly welcome. The main part to this role is being non-judgemental , kind and helping anyone who walks through the door.
There is monthly community events taking place which might include , well being / support , DWP / Job Centre Plus , Samaritans walk in support, Sexual Health Clinic, Complex Nurse walk in appointments, foot care, free hair dressing , Fibromyalgia support coffee mornings, addiction clinics, mens mental health coffee morning and much more . The Community Support Centre provides hot food and drinks for the local homeless population through a ‘pay it forward’ scheme and provides a ‘safe / warm space for those who need our support. Also volunteers are trained to take emergency calls from people in urgent situations and respond immediately. This can include same day emergency food parcel, tents, sleeping bags, heaters, clothing etc requests which the volunteers put together and arrange collection or delivery.
Food Bank Volunteers (Open 365 days a year)
The Community Café on the High Street in Herne bay runs two food banks, one during the working hours (Monday and Thursday) at 2pm – 3pm. This is where people can pop in without appointment , any referrals or any questions asked and collect a food parcel which is mostly dry / long life or tinned items. We have a volunteer manning this each day they ensure that no one goes hungry, as we at Maya’s believe that being able to eat is a basic human right. The second food bank is run at 9pm every night (365 days a year) and is fresh food which arrives every day from supermarkets around the area, no referrals or ID is needed to attend this food bank, we operate on a policy of trust. All we ask is that you bring an empty bag which we will then fill up with love and kindness.
Volunteering in the evening food banks involves setting up the café for the distribution of 30 – 40 crates of fresh food which arrives from 8.30 – 9pm in time for the food bank opening its doors at 9pm. Helping to sort the food evenly amongst the crates, bagging up any loose items of bakery. Helping to supervise the distribution of the food when the public come in to ensure everyone no one goes hungry.
If you are volunteering to help collect the 130 slots of supermarket surplus food each week this will involve driving to a supermarket and collecting crates / bags of surplus food from the manager / supervisor and taking it to the Community Café. We have collections in the morning / afternoon and evening every day of the week. You can volunteer for as little as one hour a week which makes a big difference for the struggling people using our food bank.
Furniture Bank
This role can sometimes be really emotional as volunteers are helping those who have lost everything and don’t have anything. By furnishing their homes you not only fill the house up with furniture but you give them hope for tomorrow and the future. We have the use of a van for local collections and deliveries , need is growing daily for this service and we are always looking for a driver and assistant to help collect furniture and deliver to those in our community who are starting afresh and just need a helping hand. This might be those who were recently homeless or a family escaping domestic violence or have suffered a flood or fire. We also train our volunteers in PAT testing so any electrical items and white goods donated can be tested for safety before going out to the general public.
Sometimes we can be inundated with donations and requests to collect furniture. Unfortunately we are only able to store a limited amount of furniture and if the store is reaching capacity we will have to sadly turn down the kind donations. In this role you might therefore have to relay this without being ungrateful , we are limited in what we can store at anyone time and we prioritise the most necessary items such as beds and white goods. Also we have the use of a van on Mondays and Fridays but this is mostly to enable us to get furniture out to the most needy.
It is very rewarding when someone approaches us having been through a really bad crisis with their accommodation (fire, flood, homelessness, escaping domestic abuse etc) when they realise we can provide them with a bed and sofa, white goods etc (and often bedding and crockery etc) so that they can put themselves back on their feet as soon as possible.
If you would like to get involved in the furniture side of Maya’s Community Support Centre please (click here to contact us)
