Key roles that might interest you

Whether it’s one of these, or something else you’d be interested in doing with us, your first step is to complete our simple volunteer application form and we will be in touch with you to discuss the options.

Garden Leaders & Garden Assistants>>
Assistant Garden manager>>
Parent Liaison team>>
Support & Admin Volunteers>>
Community fundraiser>>

Apply here>>

NB: Adult volunteers must be at least 18 years of age. 

Garden Leaders and Garden Assistants

Our volunteers working with teens in one of our Green Hub Gardens are fundamental to what we do at Green Hub. 
 

The work we do is all about helping young people to explore the power of nature to help manage stress and improve mental well-being. Our teen garden volunteers are right at the front line – bringing their passion for gardening, or simply an interest in helping young people, and help the teens take a pause in a stressful week.
 
We will give you all the training you need – we are often told our volunteering on-boarding process is exceptional! – and we’ll get you all set up and confident to support the teens.
 

At their sessions, groups of up to 8 teens are supported by enthusiast adult volunteers. Sessions are led by a Garden Leader, who ideally needs to have a reasonable knowledge of horticulture, along with at least two adult Garden Assistants, who need to be interested in gardening (though not necessarily super experienced), as well as keen to help teens.

 
The adult garden volunteers members are not expected to counsel or advise teens but, in providing a safe, low-stress environment with a focus on nature and group purpose, we hope that teens will naturally open up, chat with each other and find support in our community. They may just prefer to ‘be’, which is absolutely fine too. That said, you’ll definitely need to have a real interest in young people, as well as loads of empathy.
 
The sessions are currently on Saturdays, as well as a number of midweek sessions, although you aren’t asked to attend every week. We have a large team of volunteers, meaning that you are asked to commit to approx two sessions per ‘half term’ – or  more often if you are able. 

Assistant Garden Manager

Making sure the Green Hub gardens and Green Teens sessions are fully prepped and ‘teen ready’ is a key part of the weekly Green Hub schedule. 

When our garden volunteers arrive for a session, they have lots to deal with – like making sure the teens arrive safely, and who is going to do what on the day. Which is why it’s so important that the sessions are all planned and ready to go for them, with a helpful ‘to do’ list, along with any materials prepped and ready to go. 
 
We have a fab Garden Manager whose job it is to oversee all this but it is hard for them to be in multiple locations at once, which is why our Assistant Garden Manager role is important. 
 
Focusing on just one location, your role will be to support the Garden Manager by:
  • Agreeing with them a plan for the upcoming sessions that week
  • As well as thinking ahead to the next few weeks
  • Deciding what materials / tools / prep needs doing ready for upcoming sessions
  • Agreeing any garden maintenance that might need doing (you might need some other volunteers to help with this)
  • And simply getting done what needs getting done! 

The role would suit someone who loves gardening, is well organised and wants a flexible role they can get done during the week. Or someone who would like to do the role in addition helping with teen sessions. Entirely up to you! 

We currently have gardens in: 
  • Milford
  • Hydestile
  • Munstead (only for two 8 week sessions a year)
  • Farncombe

Parent Liaison team

What goes on in the garden is critical – but equally critical is the role of our Parent Liaison team, who are the vital go-between with families. Our parents tell us how much they value this support, as so few agencies feedback to them.
 
Things like: 
  • Checking in with parents after the first couple of weeks and throughout their teen’s time with Green Hub. 
  • Letting them know what’s going really well, and the milestones their teen has achieved. Teens don’t always communicate that well back at home and parents love to hear about their successes. 
  • But we can also check in with parents if we think the teen is unusually quiet, for example, just to check and see if all is well and if there is any adjustment we can make to support them. 
  • Plus our all-important parent feedback. In a busy life, it’s easy to overlook emails we send, and a gentle check in call and make all the difference in getting the info back to us. 

This is a fab role for someone with great people skills and empathy for struggling parents. 

Support & Admin Team

Green Hub has been incredibly lucky in that pretty much all the support and admin is done by volunteers, to offer what they can, when they can. Everyone has unique skills, and we are really interested to know what yours are. 

If you like the sound of what we do and are keen to join our team, make contact and we can often develop a role to fit your skills. We have a whole range of requirements that fit under the ‘marketing’ banner, possibly working with referrers (eg, reaching out the GPs and schools) and others that are admin and operational. 

Ideally you need to be able to offer 4 to 7 hours a week and be reasonably IT literate and well organised. Roles can be working from home, or from our Head Offices in Witley Station at times and availability to sit you. 

Here are some options you might like to get involved with. That said, we hate saying NO and can usually find something that would suit you – you may be able to offer something we haven’t even thought of yet! 

Referrer coordinator

  • Getting our message out to busy professionals – local GPs, school welfare leads, mental health professionals and so on – is critical if we are to keep our groups running at full capacity, ensuring we help the maximum number of young people. Which is why we are looking for a couple of volunteers who would be able to help us keep communicating with this vital group of referrers.
  • It might be that you’ve worked in schools in the past, or for the NHS – or are a parent who’s ‘been there, seen it and done it’! Whatever your background, you need to be someone who’s keen to make a difference and who can spare 2 – 4 hours a week doing something really valuable.

Blog writer

  • You might be good with words and have an interest in the world of wellbeing / mental health / young people. In which case, you might like to research, say, and article once a month / 2 months for us. 
  • You might have  background in marketing or creative writing – or it might just be that you are passionate about the subject. 

Admin assistant

  • Now that we have our had offices in Witley, we have a small staff team that coordinates most of the operational bits. But there are always projects on the go – whether it’s sending out our Christmas cards, coordinating raffle prizes, ordering new workwear – all sorts.
  • We could definitely carve out a role for someone who wants to become part of the Witley team for a morning / afternoon /day a week. 

Apply here>>

Community Fundraiser

As Green Hub has got bigger, our need for funds has got bigger too.  We are still pretty lean as an organisation, but we need to keep the funds flowing and relying on large trusts and funds can be precarious – they are highly oversubscribed and often come with significant restrictions on how the money can be spent. 

Which is why Community Fundraising is so important – finding ways of generating cash locally that we are able to directly control. Things like running events, retail (plant sales, Christmas Cards, Raffles), community organisations and local business partnerships and donations.

Right from the start, Green Hub has been led by local business owners who understand the importance of local connections and personal contacts. Our hallmark has been in finding roles to fit people’s strengths and if you’d like to share your skills with us we’d be really delighted to have you in our team.

Led by co-founder Vanessa, this group is responsible for coming up with plenty of new ideas and initiatives to keep the Green Hub fuel tank topped up! So, if you’ve got a business background, enjoy talking to people and making connections, helping run events, and aren’t afraid of asking a cheeky question to see if local businesses or community groups will support us financially, you’ll be in good company in this team. 

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