Volunteering at The Forward Trust is a great opportunity to help people in your community and beyond. As well as making a significant difference by helping people to move beyond addiction, crime, and related challenges, you will also gain valuable work experience.
Volunteers are respected as a vital part of our team and their work is highly valued. In return, we ask you to perform your duties to the best of your abilities and show commitment to our values and goals.
We welcome applications that reflect the diversity of the communities in which we work, so if you have lived experience of addiction or the criminal justice system, we want to hear from you.
Volunteering at The Forward Trust will also help you to develop important transferable skills to improve your career and work prospects. It will also help to build your interpersonal skills by meeting new people and working in different settings. We’ll match you to a work area that’s right for you.
We offer opportunities in our community and prison services, as well as our head office teams. Former volunteers have gone on to further education, training, and careers both within Forward and within the wider sector.
Forward is a great place to learn and understand the challenges of addiction, criminal justice and homelessness. Volunteers will learn about a number of social factors and disadvantages that can lead people towards harmful behaviours, factors that can also prevent individuals from getting the help they deserve.
Other benefits to volunteering at Forward include:
Regular supervision and support.
Training to help enhance required skills.
Pathways to accredited learning programmes.
Travel and lunch expenses.
An induction into Forward and our services.
Forward has been accredited by Volunteering England for our commitment to supporting, enabling, and celebrating volunteering in all its diversity. In 2024, we also retained our Investing in Volunteers accreditation for the fourth year running.
We have a range of voluntary roles at The Forward Trust, including:
Reach Out - providing advice and support to people via our online chat service.
Meet and Greet - supporting our clients on their first day of release from prison or one of our rehabilitation services.
Community and prison support - working with our drug and alcohol practitioners and counsellors to support service delivery, including administrative support.
Administration - providing support in one of Forward’s many teams at head office or across other services.
Some volunteering opportunities are for specific projects or time periods, while others are ongoing on a rolling basis.
Take a look at our current voluntary vacancies.
If you have skills, knowledge, and experience that you want to offer but don’t see a role that fits your skill set, please still contact us at volunteering@forwardtrust.org.uk.
Volunteering at The Forward Trust can change lives – but don’t just take our word for it.
Leon, a volunteer at Forward, began as a service user. He got help for his addiction from The Forward Trust and the Nehemiah Project whilst serving time in prison and is now leading a new life in recovery.
These days, Leon volunteers with Forward supporting others to enter a life free from addiction and break the cycle of crime.
Watch Leon’s story:
