Do you have some free time on your hands? Fancy helping out a worthy cause?

Ardrossan charity, The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety, provides personal safety training to vulnerable groups and individuals including female survivors of sexual and physical violence; people who are blind / visually impaired; LGBT groups, ethnic minority groups and much more.

They are run entirely by volunteers and they are looking for more.

The positions available include:

Instructors – if you fancy becoming a Personal Safety instructor, it takes months of training but it is free of charge and you get to change people’s lives for the better as well as join a fabulous, award winning team. The weekly instructor training takes place every Thursday 12.30 – 2.30pm in the Barony St John Centre in Ardrossan.

Receptionists – although they don’t have a phone, they do have lots of printing, filing and emails to send, so lots to keep you busy with while manning reception and showing people where to go for training, toilets, etc. Every person who has manned the reception has went on to find a full-time job so it’s great work experience.

Cleaners – being a busy community centre as well as a base for the charity, the building gets dirty quickly. Everything from the main hall and mats, gym equipment, Training Room, toilets and reception area need mopped, hoovered, wiped down and dusted. It’s a vital job to allow them to open to the public and do the work they do so they value our cleaning volunteers immensely.

Maintenance – if you enjoy DIY, painting, joinery work, electrics, plumbing or just fixing things, this is the job for you. The centre dates back to the Victorian era so it needs a lot of TLC. Like the Forth Road Bridge, just when you think the work is done, something else needs repaired / painted. Can you help?

Gardeners – although they don’t have much of a garden, they seem to attract a huge amount of weeds. The paving stones around the church need constantly weeded while the small patch of lawn in front of our hall needs regular mowing. It’s a constant job so they need people who enjoy seeing the fruits of their labour.

Funding Officer – if you are any good at applying for funding, please contact the centre. They know there are funds out there but just don’t have the time to apply for them. So if you are in between jobs and want to help by applying for funding, the charity would be most grateful. Or, if you want to apply for funding to allow you to do this for them full or part time, please get in touch.

Trustees – they have one Trustee post to fill. Ideally, the person will have some sort of connection to the work they do and/or the people they help. Existing Trustees have varied backgrounds from PR to Social Care, business management and accountancy.

In return for your services, you get to work with the best team of volunteers you can possibly imagine.

The charity has won numerous awards in the past twelve months alone including “Empowering Champions” at the Scottish Diversity Awards and “Pioneering Project” at The Scottish Charity Awards.

Many of the volunteers have won awards in their own right including “No.1 Volunteer” at the North Ayrshire Health & Social Care Partnership Awards, “Disability Inclusion Champion of the Year” at the Scottish Diversity Awards and even a couple of “Martial Arts Hall of Fame” Awards.

The charity's ethos is simple: "we champion equality, diversity and human rights as defining values of our charity. And we promote equality of opportunity for all, giving every individual the chance to achieve their potential, free from prejudice and discrimination".

If you think you could fit into the team, give Alan a call on 07900 950599 or email him at Alan@ScotCPS.org.uk.