Start next year off on the right foot by making a New Year’s resolution that not only benefits you but makes a real difference to the lives of adults and children with physical disabilities and children with autism. Dogs for the Disabled is looking for volunteers to help at their fundraising events across England in 2012.
If you have spare time (one or two hours per week) and you’d like to be a valued member of a team, this is a great opportunity. By volunteering you can boost your CV, gain new skills and experiences that employers are looking for, and beat the tough economic climate. Volunteering is also a great way to meet people and make new friends, while providing people with physical disabilities with freedom and independence.
Dogs for the Disabled is a pioneering charity with over twenty years experience of creating life-changing partnerships. The charity trains assistance dogs for children and adults with physical disabilities and families with a child with autism, to help them with everyday tasks that most of us take for granted.
Imagine not being able to take your jacket off after a hard day, or pick your car keys up off the floor, or if your child struggled to deal with things outside of their routine and as a result kept having ‘meltdowns’. For people with physical disabilities and families with children that have autism, these tasks can be impossible, very painful, or extremely frustrating.
To date Dogs for the Disabled has trained over 570 assistance dogs to help with practical tasks. However, for many of the charity’s clients their dogs give them much more than practical help. They provide a reason to go out and a confidence boost that opens doors to fresh opportunities, including friendships, hobbies, education and even careers.
The charity is looking for fundraising volunteers to support the Charity by helping with one-off or regular fundraising and awareness events such as tin collections. Jane Sargent, Community Fundraiser for the charity, says: “Dogs for the Disabled is a charity that has positively impacted on many lives to date, but we need more volunteers to assist with fundraising events to enable us to help the hundreds of people across the UK that face challenges on a daily basis as a result of their disabilities. Being matched with a specifically trained assistance dog would not only give them their independence back, but provide a constant companion too.
Dogs for the Disabled is specifically looking for volunteers to help with events in the following areas:
Aylesbury
Welwyn Garden City
Bedford
Milton Keynes
Leighton Buzzard
Holt
Cromer
Cambridge
Huntingdon
St Neots
Northampton
Nottingham
Bromsgrove
Warwick
Leamington Spa
Newton Abbot
Find out more on our website, call 01295 252600 or email jane.sargent@dogsforthedisabled.org.
