Set up volunteering
Setting the centres up before Christmas
Crisis Christmas uses donated buildings for its seven centres, which could be anything from office spaces to warehouse buildings. We want them to be as attractive and inspiring as possible for our guests to enjoy, so we spend time before 23 December revamping them.
Closing the centres down after Christmas
After Crisis Christmas ends, we also need to close down our centres and return the buildings to the state in which they were donated (or better!). Set-up volunteering should more accurately actually be called set-up and close-down volunteering.
We need people with specialist skills
Calling all tradespeople!
We need people with specialist skills to help transform the centres. Throughout December both weekdays and weekends we need:
- Electricians
- Plumbers
- Carpenters and joiners
- Builders
- Decorators
- Generalist tradesmen.
If you could spare a few days, we'd love to hear from you. The work needed is hard to predict until we see the buildings we are using, so we are asking tradespersons just to get in touch and fill in the volunteer application form. We'll then contact you to see if we can find a mutually convenient time once we know what is needed.
Set up/close down challenge days (for non-specialists)
Challenge days help us co-ordinate set-up and close-down more efficiently and to use your time better. Challenge days involve up to 50 people.
You will be working in one of our centres, or possibly the COC warehouse - wherever we most need help at that time. We can't predict where this will be at this stage, it will depend on the buildings we are using. If you sign up for this we will contact you in the preceding week and let you know where to arrive. It is very likely to be somewhere within central London (we look for all our centres within London Underground zones 1-2).
The work involved is varied and often quite physical, so don't come in your best clothes and be prepare to be a bit tired at the end of the day. It's really important that those who sign up can do the whole shift and turn up on time at 9.30 am.
Week day warehouse support and driving
We need help in the Crisis Christmas warehouse throughout December (and possibly earlier), both in sorting out resources and driving (3.5T/Luton sized and 7.5T vehicles). If you are interested in helping out midweek, please get in touch and we’ll contact you to make arrangements if we still need more support.
