Volunteer With Us
Become a Community Volunteer and Make a Difference!​
This Volunteer pathway is open to the following Volunteer Streams: Young Person (16 - 25) and Adults (25+).
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Spread the Word, Share the Vision! Join our dynamic Community Volunteer team and help raise awareness about our organisation's impactful initiatives. As a volunteer, you'll represent us at events and within your own community, playing a key role in our outreach efforts.
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A Platform for Impact:
Help Tailored Leisure Company deliver positive social impact, by bringing the disabled community/people with long term conditions together to get fit, feel good about themselves and less isolated. Do all this whilst developing your work skills and giving something back to your local community.
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Join Our Team:
If you have a passion for community engagement and a desire to make a real impact, we want you on our team. Become a Community Volunteer and help us spread the word to create positive change.
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For more information email: tailored.leisure@gmail.com
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Volunteering Information
Our Volunteering Programme develops and nurtures the volunteers employability skills, confidence and community connection.
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We strive to drive equity for volunteers to get the best experiences, from the volunteering work they do and gain control about what’s important to them, whilst on their journey with us. We create environments that are discrimination free, where people can come together, progress, live healthier and thrive! We have worked in partnership with parents/carers, schools, colleges and disabled organisations, to design and deliver meaningful work/pathways for our clients, which are aligned to their qualifications, individual goals and aspirations.
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For example, some of our disabled volunteers are completing a Duke of Edinburgh Award, within their school and we align volunteering activities (with guidance from head teachers/teachers/and support staff), to accomplish specific criteria and develop skills.
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Work projects have included the piloting of a social café, offering a unique team building/leadership/customer service experience that not only encourages heathy eating, but also brings together young and older disabled people in an environment that creates a sense of community. Thus, tackling isolation, building confidence, self-esteem and a peer-support orientated environment. We intend to grow this initiative due to its success.
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One of our long-standing volunteers from Gateshead College, upholds a football coaching qualification and an aspiration to embed/lead with these skills, has recently endured a holistic pathway, mapped out in their Volunteering Passport. The passport identified relevant support, feedback and experiences required from Tailored Leisure, Foundation of Light, Ability Football, Gateshead College and Epinay School. Thus, developing practical skills to deliver/lead football camps with other disabled people.
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Finally a lot of our volunteers help to support and attend our flagship Sit to be Fit Programme which offers disabled people/people with long term conditions a chance to participate, support and deliver adapted exercises in the community.
Some of our volunteers have supported us at networking events, helping instructors set out equipment, serving refreshments or managed their own mini creative projects to deliver with our service users.
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All experiences which are supported by our Tailored Leisure team and CEO!
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If any of these experiences have sparked your interest and you would like to join our volunteering team or get involved in some of our community projects please contact us.
CASE STUDIES
Employability Skills and a Football Camp in South Tyneside – how a placement is shaping one young man’s future.
Liam Keightley is setting his sights on a future of work thanks to the skills he is gaining during his placement with Tailored Leisure.
At 20 years old, having completed a Level 3 course in Coaching, he joined Tailored Leisure in October 2024 to build up his employability skills, having never volunteered or worked in a placement before.
Among the areas that Liam is working in are health and safety, administration, and social media. Alongside practical skills, Liam, who had low confidence when he began his placement, has blossomed into a more confident, as well as capable, member of the team.
Bringing together his coaching abilities and the skills he is learning on his placement, Liam is creating an Easter football camp for other young people to participate in and is learning how to implement this project from start to finish.
“I have applied for funding for the camp, which we have been awarded by Sported,” described Liam. “I will then set a date, plan the session, and be supported by Tailored Leisure staff and another volunteer, Nick, who supports me. I can be very shy, so this helps me build my confidence in front of people.”
“Liam has already supported us in setting up Get Out Get Active (GOGA) activities for other young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and supported our Christmas bowling bonanza,” said Tara Mackings, Founder and Director of Tailored Leisure.
Liam has autism and had been supported with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The placement gives Liam an opportunity to develop his workplace skills. In a situation similar to others with SEND, other employers had refused to take him due to his disabilities. Throughout the course of the GOGA programme, a key understanding is that lived experience matters. Liam is specially placed to understand some of the challenges faced by participants, which is incredibly valuable in helping to overcome barriers.
“The placement has given him the ability to build his life skills, confidence, and travel training to get to and from our venue independently, something he has not done before. We have watched Liam build in confidence each week and upskill in different areas of Tailored Leisure,” said Tara.
About GOGA and volunteer placements, she added: “Having had informal volunteers on previous GOGA activities, we have built a clear volunteer passport and structured programme. We have rolled this out to Epinay Enterprise school in South Tyneside, where we now have a bespoke session for 15 pupils and volunteers.”
As a result of his placement, Liam has realised he likes administration work as well as planning the Easter football camp. He would like to work in administration and is benefitting from a second placement in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, too. Liam has his sights set on a paid job after his experience with Tailored Leisure is completed in June.
“Tailored Leisure gave me a chance to volunteer, feel part of team, and learn new things. A few months ago, I was unsure if I could do things, but I know I can now and hope to get a job in something I enjoy soon,” said Liam.
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