Opportunities

Playworker

Our centres are always on the lookout for new playworker volunteers, to help us out from time to time and on a flexible basis. You’ll be joining a friendly and caring team who will support you as you help make sure Hop Skip & Jump is a safe and fun space for young people with disabilities.

If you would like to gain some valuable experience of working with children and adults with additional needs, this is a great opportunity! Please contact your nearest centre to find out more.

Fundraising & events volunteer

If you would be happy to assist with occasional charity collections and events in your area, or would like to organise your own collection or event in aid of HSJ, please contact our events coordinator: [email protected]

Events could include family fun days, fundraising parties and other exciting activities! We always need volunteers to run stalls, help serve food and so on. Anyone with event organisation experience would be greatly valued, and we would welcome your input on planning events too. You can turn up for as long as is convenient on the day, and help is always appreciated in any form! For town centre collections, buckets and necessary equipment would be provided.

Bus Driver

We run a minibus pickup and drop-off service across our centres, and currently we are looking for drivers at our Bristol and Cotswold centres for a few hours a week. The hours are flexible, but mostly late afternoons and evenings to cover our Afterschool Club bus runs. Any time you can offer us would be an immense help! Please contact your nearest Hop Skip & Jump centre.

Gardening

We can always use help with maintaining the gardens at our Cotswold, Bristol and Swindon centres. The large outdoor spaces bring great joy to the children and young people, but do need a good amount of TLC to keep them looking nice and presentable! Please contact the centres to find out more.

What our volunteers say

Adele’s Story – ‘I very much enjoyed working with you and your staff and meeting such special children. It really is a fantastic organisation, and working there over the summer I was able to see the amazing benefits it has for the children as well as their families. I would love to return to Hop Skip and Jump at some point in the future.’

Lynne’s Story – ‘I love working at Hop Skip and Jump with the children and adults; there is always something to make you smile.’

Dean’s Story – ‘Hop Skip and Jump is a great place to work as you work with people you never thought you would meet.’

Faye’s Story – ‘One afternoon I was working with a young boy who has autism. He does not speak, or make eye contact with us normally and tends to play alone. His parents have spoken with us before about his behaviour at home. He can be challenging, uncommunicative and unresponsive.

On this afternoon we were sat outside in the sun and I was chatting away to him as he sat next to me. He turned to me, looked me straight in the eye and said ‘Wow!’ I was so shocked. I copied him, he held my gaze, smiled, sat close and said ‘wow’ again. We sat close for the next two hours having a conversation in our new ‘wow’ language he initiated. He suddenly seemed to enjoy hugs and smiles, which I have never known him to do before – it was amazing!’

Kathy’s Story – ‘Working at Hop Skip and Jump was very rewarding. I love working with the children and adults; there is always something to make you smile and think.

One day I was outside with a 12 year old girl playing on the flying fox. As a plane passed overhead, the child looked up and said: ‘I wish I could fly’, so I asked her where she would go. She just shrugged, so I told her a story about a white swan flying in the summer sun that could go anywhere she wanted. The child said she was looking for ‘somewhere and someone to play with.’ For a short time we were lost in a story, which seemed to calm her down.’