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 busiest shop in the town. Receiving 100s of bags of donations and 100s of customers everyday (Monday – Saturday). The amount of donations that come each day have saved over 7,000 tonnes of CO2 going into the atmosphere over the last 12 months 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.
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 food bank 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.
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. Staying calm under pressure and remembering our core principles of no judgement, equality and compassion when dealing with members of the public. 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
We are looking for volunteers to join our busy community café on the high street in herne bay. 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. There is often 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. The Community Support Centre provides hot drinks for the local homeless population through a ‘pay it forward’ scheme and provides a ‘safe / warm space for those who need our services.
Food Bank Volunteers
The Community Café on the High Street in Herne bay runs two food banks, one during the working hours (Monday – Friday) at 2pm – 3pm. This is where people can pop in 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 people are given sufficient food but also to steer people who are visiting regularly towards other local food banks and our evening fresh food to ensure we have sufficient stocks available for everyone. The second food bank is run at 9pm every night and is fresh food which arrives every day from supermarkets around the area. Everyone is welcome at this food bank and we only ask that people only take what they need and ensure that there is enough to go around for those who make the journey to us.
Dry / Long life Food bank
Greet people wishing to use the food bank , enquire as to their needs and balance what they need with what our stocks are.
Evening Food bank
Helping to set up the café for the distribution of 20 – 30 crates of fresh food which arrives from 8 – 8.45pm 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 has equal access to food.
Collecting Food for food bank
Driving to a supermarket and collecting crates / bags of surplus food from the manager / supervisor and taking it to the Community Café.
Furniture Bank
We have the use of a van for local collections and deliveries and 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. We also train our volunteers in PAT testing so any electrical items donated can be tested for safety before going out to the general public.