Volunteer in the Aire Valley

3 Oct 2022

Fancy supporting the country's largest nature conservation charity? Volunteering for the RSPB is one of the best ways to do so!

Did you know:

Here in the Aire Valley, there are two places where you can give nature a home. We have RSPB St Aidan's nature park in Leeds and RSPB Fairburn Ings nature reserve at Castleford and both sites are currently looking for volunteers. From greeting visitors as part of our welcome team to patrolling the nature reserves as part of our ranger team – we have plenty of volunteer roles available! A brief summary of some of the roles is listed below:

Shop & Cafe roles:

RSPB St Aidan's is the home of the Little Owl Cafe! This role is exciting as you'll get to engage with our visitors at the most crucial part of their journey- lunchtime! (Or breakfast time?). You'll be continuing to enhance their journey around site by serving lots of tasty refreshments including cakes, traybakes, drinks, and more. With this role, there is also an opportunity to develop your wildlife and historical knowledge of the site.

Over at RSPB Fairburn Ings your role will be similar, though there is also a shop where refreshments, bird food, binoculars, and more are sold. Working within either of these roles means you’ll assist with setting up and closing, serving customers, talking to visitors, cleaning the café, and more. A warm welcome and an enthusiastic approach are ideal.

Ranger:

This is an exciting role that involves getting out and exploring the reserve! You'll be providing assistance and encouragement to all types of visitors on their journey around the site. You'll be engaging with them about their day, and what they've seen and reported to the team to record wildlife sightings. Basic knowledge about wildlife and the RSPB site is beneficial but don't worry! There's always plenty of opportunity to learn lots along the way.

Welcome team:

The welcome team are visitor’s first impression of the RSPB and therefore are quite important (but all of our volunteers are important in one way or another!)! This volunteer role involves talking to visitors about the site and what they might see; encouraging them to become a member and explaining what that stands for and how that supports the RSPB. Having a basic understanding of the reserve is helpful as you’ll likely be talking to new visitors who don’t know their way around the site but again, this is always something you can learn along the way. Being enthusiastic and warm is an important part of their first experience on the reserve.

Pin Badge Box:

Join our amazing volunteers who are helping to inspire everyone to give nature a home and secure a healthy environment for wildlife. You will gain skills and get invaluable insight into our essential work and you'll be visiting various sites in your local area (such as shops or cafés) and asking them to support the RSPB by hosting a pin badge box on their premises. Useful skills including good communication, numeracy, basic computer literacy, and enthusiasm are important for this role.