Your questions

All of our applications are done online but we’re happy to talk through any questions you have before you apply. We have a lot of enquiries about volunteering, so we've put together some handy information based on the questions we receive most often.

Have a look at these, and if you can't see what you are looking for, you can ask a question of your own by filling in the form at the bottom of the page, which we will contact you to discuss.

In our experience, people under 21 still have too much change happening in their life to be able to make the necessary long-term commitment to mentor a young child who needs that stability.

The service we provide relies on its one-to-one nature to be successful in supporting vulnerable children. Therefore as a mentor you would not be able to bring your own children with you on outings. As an organisation we believe that the quality and amount of time parents spend with their children is incredibly important, and we know that they will rightly be your priority.

It is also important for our children to feel that they have their mentor’s undivided attention, and their support to develop and grow. Even if your children are not present, it can be hard for the child you would be supporting to build confidence and feel like a priority if they know that they are sharing you with someone else, particularly a child of a similar age.

As a small charity it is not possible for us to interview everyone who applies to us. Because of this we have developed a shortlisting system to invite those applicants to interview who we think might be the best fit for us.

We provide expenses up to a maximum of £15 for each meeting a volunteer has with the child they support. Volunteers pay on the day and then claim the money back using our expenses system.

Expenses are based on the number of outings. A volunteer and their match who meet three times in a month have £45 to spend over the course of those three outings. If an outing is cancelled or doesn’t take place, volunteers cannot claim expenses for that outing.

We try to be flexible, and you don't have to spend exactly £15 on each outing. Some friendships choose to save money one week by taking a picnic to the park, so that they can 'rollover' the remainder and do something a bit more expensive the second or third week.

Yes. We know that in two years there will be times when you want to go on holiday or away for a weekend. Just let us know your plans in plenty of time, so we can make arrangements.

It depends. On average we would advise people to expect a three month process, as it takes a little while to go through interview and training, and then some time for the Enhanced CRB to be carried out. But it can then take a little longer to find the right match for you and the children we support.

Not necessarily. We are looking for qualities that would make you a good friend. Warmth, patience, empathy, consistency and commitment are the most important of these.

One of the most important things we do is provide regular, consistent and reliable support for children, so it's important that you meet regularly. However, this could be three out of four weekends.

We ask that volunteers can make time most weekends to meet with the child they support. In some rare cases it may be better for the child to occasionally meet during the week, but most of the time outings happen at the weekend. We offer volunteers the option to meet three out of four weekends, as we do understand that people have commitments to family and friends.

We ask that our volunteers commit to a minimum of two years. Evidence shows that mentoring is only really effective when it is long-term. Otherwise you will not have the chance to make a lasting difference. It takes a while to form a strong friendship as the foundation on which to build other more long-lasting changes in a child's life. Many of our volunteers say it is in the second year and beyond that they start to see the real changes happen.

Can I bring other people on a visit or introduce the child to people I know?

You shouldn’t take anyone else on a visit, as the purpose of the friendship is to provide one-to-one support for children. As safety is a key concern for us, children should not be introduced to people who have not been assessed by Friendship Works.

If you’re ill or something comes up, we understand that happens from time to time. Just let the family and us know in plenty of time and we can sort everything out.

Volunteers will see the parents and it’s important that the parent knows that they are trustworthy and will look after their child. But volunteers are just there to support their child, not the parents too. If children have brothers and sisters who also need support, they can be referred to Friendship Works for their own mentor.

This is a common worry. Most of our children are very keen to have a volunteer to go out with. They may be reserved at first, however, or it may take them a while to trust you if they have been let down before.

This is something we will only consider after you have been matched with the child for over 6 months, and there must be a good reason, such as doing cookery together. We will visit your home to make sure it is safe and to meet anyone else who lives there. We would have to carry out Enhanced Criminal Record Bureau checks on the other occupants.

We ask that our volunteers have a reasonable standard of physical and mental health to be able to provide the best all-round support for the child they are matched with. If you have a health problem which significantly affects your ability to carry out day to day activity, we cannot accept your application. For similar safety purposes, we don’t accept applications from anyone who has experienced a severe psychiatric episode requiring hospital treatment within the last three years, or people who have experienced extreme emotional distress (such as the death of a partner) from which they are still recovering.

We can only accept applications from people living in and around London. Although volunteers are keen to make the effort, the travelling time often makes a weekend commitment for two years very difficult.

Having a criminal record would not necessarily mean you couldn't volunteer with us. It would depend on the nature of the offence, how long ago it happened, and whether it was an isolated incident. We would normally expect a minimum of 3 years to have elapsed and would be most concerned about sexual or violent offences. Due to the nature of this role we would not consider anyone with a history of offences against children. You should note that an Enhanced CRB check shows all convictions and cautions.

If you would like to talk to one of our team about volunteering, and whether it is something you could do with us, please fill in the form below and we will contact you to discuss in more detail.