We are a volunteer-led organisation. Our entire service provision is dependent upon the support of those who give their time to deliver and administrate our activities. On the ground, more volunteer walk leaders per walk maximises the safety of our walkers. From an administration point of view, more volunteers increase the breadth of expertise we can cover between us and spreads the load so no one person is over-burdened. Don't be shy about volunteering. If you are not sure if or how you could help - contact us for a no obligations chat, either by phoning Sue on 075 0563 9524 (the Step Out Sheffield Helpline) or by emailing us at admin@stepoutsheffield.co.uk
Our Volunteer roles are:
- Walk Assistant
- Volunteer Walk Leader
- Social event support
- Fund-raising and/or financial management
Walk Assistant/Volunteer Walk Leader
If you have good people skills and enjoy the great outdoors, you might like to help our award-winning scheme by becoming a Walk Assistant. By supporting our trained Volunteer Walk Leaders to deliver a short, led social walk you will experience the best of Sheffield's green spaces whilst helping to keep the walkers safe and making sure they are integrating socially. If you are able to support a particular walk on a reasonably regular basis, you will also enjoy the benefits that come from widening your social network and making friends with other Volunteers and with walkers. The social side of these walks is extremely important, and we like to encourage a bit of banter before, during and after the walk.
Becoming a registered Ramblers Wellbeing Walks Volunteer Walk Leader is a two-part process. Firstly, you join a walk as a Walk Assistant. In this role you'll wear a hi-viz jacket like the Volunteer Walk leaders (VWLs) and you will you shadow the VWLs and learn from them how to deliver a safe and sociable accessible walk. Once you feel ready to take the next step one of the scheme's trainers will enrol you onto a half-day training course to enable you to qualify for registration as a Ramblers Wellbeing Walks Volunteer Walk Leader.
As our walks become more and more popular, Step out Sheffield needs more leaders to keep the walkers safe. Also, we would very much like to expand our programme so that people in all corners of the city can access a short, accessible social walk in their own locality.
Our Volunteers enjoy a quarterly programme of events, and access to other training opportunities (such as mental health awareness, visual impairment awareness and CPR training) . We also provide hi-viz jackets for all our volunteers and logo’d fleeces for our VWLs. There is no upper age limit for Walk Assistants and Volunteer Walk Leaders and if you are not in the best of health that doesn’t matter either – a majority of walkers (and leaders for that matter) have a health issue of one sort or another. All you need is a love of nature, the ability to talk and walk at the same time and, ideally, a sense of humour.
Our most recent face to face training course was in June 2023. The next course is planned for 16th October 2023.
Social Event Support
Since Step Out Sheffield became self-managed in April 2016 the volunteer team who administer the scheme have striven to provide a programme of quarterly network events for Volunteers and another quarterly programme of social events for both volunteers and for walkers. If you have experience in organising events and activities and might be interested in helping us deliver future events we'd love to hear from you.
Fund-raising and financial management
If you have a background in finance, accounting or fund-raising and can spare a few hours to help us maintain best practice with regard to our financial affairs please get in touch.
Contact us:
Sue Lee - on 075 0563 9524 (the Step Out Sheffield Helpline) or email admin@stepoutsheffield.co.uk