Become A Volunteer
Make a Smile is dependent on volunteers kindly agreeing to dedicate their time to visiting children and making them smile. Our door is always open to keen and enthusiastic volunteers who want to get involved.
New volunteers must complete some paperwork, undergo training and submit a DBS prior to attending events. For the first 20 hours of volunteering, all new volunteers are monitored by the Lead volunteer or committee member on duty, and are frequently offered feedback to build on their skills and interactions. Following any necessary remedial measures, they become a full volunteer.
Volunteer Roles
There's a number of roles we have for volunteers. These roles are outlined below.
Character
- Attend events in character
- Makes up to bulk of Make a Smile
- Plays games, chats to and interacts with children
Magic Maker
- Attend events out of character
- Often act as supporting staff
- Plays games, chats to and interacts with children
- Assists characters at events
- Can be a jumping pad to being a character
Imagineer
- Does not attend events
- Helps with the general running of Make a Smile
- Organises events, helps with costumes etc
- For people short on time or not wanting to attend events
Volunteer Trainings
Our volunteers undergo rigorous training in order to ensure the very best standards. All of our volunteers are trained in character studies and working with children before being permitted to participate in events. We also provide a number of different optional training sessions, allowing our volunteers to expand their skill set and interact better with all children.
These optional training sessions include British Sign Language, Autism Awareness, Confidentiality, Non-Verbal Communication, Improvisation and many more.
For the first 20 hours of volunteering, all new volunteers are monitored by the Lead volunteer or committee member on duty, and are frequently offered feedback to build on their skills and interactions. Following any necessary remedial measures, they become a full volunteer.
These measures are all in place to ensure Make a Smile provides only the best service and remains at the forefront of our practice.
If you want to find out more about becoming a volunteer, please fill in the form below or email admin@makeasmile.org.uk.
Please note: If the city you are based in isn't listed on the form, it means we don't have a chapter currently setup in your area. To setup a chapter, visit our Open a Chapter page here.
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Register
Already have an account? Log InYou'll get emails from your 2nd chapter too. This is especially useful if you want to travel to nearby chapters for events or spend significant time in another city (eg over the holidays)
Required field!This can include a DBS check, Working with Children check, Disclosure Scotland check etc. Please note, if you don't yet have one, you can leave it blank. Please do not include any letters, spaces or special characters.
Required field!Your medical conditions will be kept confidentially and is only asked for the purposes of ensuring that you are supported in attending events and ensure the best experience of you and the children that we visit.
Required field!If volunteers want to, we offer an optional £3 membership fee to go towards costumes as it can be a massive help. If you wish to donate, you can use the Membership Donation button below.
Required field!