Five small roles

We do not need many volunteers. We need the right ones, who can stay.

We currently have forty-eight volunteers across five named roles. We will recruit, on average, six new volunteers in 2026. We have a small waiting list for one or two of the roles. Please read the descriptions below carefully before writing to us.

A volunteer in a navy fleece with the Charity's name embroidered on the chest, walking up Milford Street in mid-afternoon light. — Volunteer Helen Lockwood on Milford Street · February 2026

The trustees do not ask volunteers to fundraise. We do not ask volunteers to give us their addresses for a database. We ask them to commit to a small fixed number of hours, to do those hours carefully, and to stay long enough for the work to settle. Our shortest minimum commitment is six months. Our longest, for the Sunday Doors befriender role, is twelve. We are slow to recruit and we are slow to discharge. It is the only way the work makes sense.

Role one · Sunday Doors

Sunday Doors befriender

Commitment: one hour per week, on a Sunday afternoon between 14.00 and 17.00. Twelve-month minimum, renewable. Location: the home of one older neighbour, in St Martin's or St Edmund's parish, Salisbury. Team lead: Helen Lockwood, coordinator.

You will be paired with one older person, usually living alone, for a Sunday afternoon visit. The visit is unhurried. You bring the local paper, a few photographs of your week. Tea is made by the person you are visiting. Conversation goes where it goes; no agenda. You will receive three months of training (six Saturday mornings) before your first visit and an enhanced DBS check.

We need patient people who can stay. The first six visits will feel quiet — the work is in the eighteenth month, not the first. We currently have a waiting list of seven befrienders for thirteen pairings.

Role two · Grants

Grant case-reader

Commitment: two evenings a month at St Martin's Church House. Location: Trustees' Clerk's office. Team lead: Robert Lewis, Secretary.

You will read incoming grant applications ahead of the monthly trustees' meeting and write a one-page précis of each one, neutrally, to assist the trustees' decision. The Clerk supplies the case files. Confidentiality is absolute. A Citizens Advice, social work, welfare rights, or paralegal background is helpful but not required.

This role suits a retired professional who enjoys careful reading and exact writing. We have two case-readers at present; we would welcome a third.

Role three · Wellbeing

Cathedral Close Listening Walk leader

Commitment: fortnightly Saturday mornings, March–November, plus a small amount of preparation. Location: Cathedral Close and water meadows, Salisbury. Team lead: Dean Speer, trustee.

You will lead a small slow walk twice a month, holding space for quiet conversation. Two miles, approximately an hour and twenty minutes. The walking is the easy part; the listening is the work. The Charity pays for your Mental Health First Aid training (two days, refreshed every three years).

We have three walk leaders. We do not need a fourth at present, but we keep a waiting list.

Role four · Archive

Archive cataloguer

Commitment: two mornings a month, by appointment. Location: the trustees' archive cupboard, St Martin's Church House, Salisbury. Team lead: Robert Lewis, Secretary.

Our minute books run continuously from 1701. Two of the eighteenth-century volumes have never been catalogued in detail. You will read entries, transcribe them, and produce a searchable index in plain text. Cotton gloves provided, archival training given. A reading knowledge of secretary hand is a great help but is not required for the post-1830 material.

This is a long, careful job. We expect any cataloguer to be with us for at least two years. We have one current cataloguer working on the volume covering 1832–1851; we would welcome a second working on 1701–1730.

Role five · Parish

Parish liaison

Commitment: ad hoc, approximately five hours a month. Location: across the two parishes, on foot. Team lead: Michael Snell, safeguarding lead.

You will be the Charity's eyes and ears on the streets of one of the two parishes. You will know the parish priest, the head of the primary school, the CAB caseworker, and a few of the longer-standing households. When a household begins to struggle, you will be among the first to notice. You will write a short monthly note to the Clerk.

This role is filled by invitation rather than open application. We mention it here so that you know the work goes on.

If, after reading the above, you would like to volunteer

A short, plain enquiry form. Five working days for a reply.

The Clerk will read your message and, if there is a role that may suit, write to invite you to an unhurried first conversation.

First name

Last name

Telephone (optional)

Which role interests you?

A few sentences about yourself

I am happy for the Trustees' Clerk to contact me by email or telephone in reply to this enquiry. I have read the privacy notice.

If you'd rather support our work financially, every gift goes directly into a grant.

We pay for the Clerk and a fortnightly newsletter; everything else passes through to a household.

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