Ways to Volunteer

We aim to offer a wide range of volunteering opportunities to suit you, so you can choose to give as little or as much time as you want in a location that suits - whether it be from your home, by or on the water or in a British Waterways office. We have opportunities for volunteers to work on their own or with a group of other British Waterways volunteers, at the weekends and/or during the week

There are many different ways to volunteer:

• Full time and short term opportunities
• Publicity and promotions
• In the office
• Practical conservation and survey work
• Youth and education
• Specific campaigns - Towpath Tidy
• Partner Volunteering Organisations
• Waterway adoption schemes

Full time and short term opportunities

There are no fixed times for which we want people to volunteer although we may set down timescales to do tasks in the most efficient/customer friendly/safe way. We aim to offer a range of opportunities from one off tasters through to longer term 'full time' volunteering:

1. A taster one off opportunity, these opportunities are generally a case of turning up and getting involved on the day
2. A more regular relationship possibly with higher levels of responsibility where specific training is needed to deliver the task. This could be once a month, once a week or even on a full time basis.

There is no time commitment when volunteering. We request that if British Waterways is relying on you and you can't fulfil the commitment you give us as much notice as possible. In order for both parties to get the most out of the opportunity, it may be best to offer, for example, at least 1 day per week. This will depend on the role and is best discussed with us. Certain training may only be available for those who've volunteered for British Waterways over a more sustained period.

Publicity and promotions

How many people know that we have canals and river navigations around the country but don't know where they are, why they're there or how they can enjoy them?

Volunteers help at public events, helping to build an understanding of why the canals and river navigations are so important to the nation and local communities. Through giving presentations you connect groups and individuals with the waterways. It's also a good way to recruit other volunteers!

You can help promote the waterways in many other ways, working with press, blogging, developing and maintaining websites, activities that connect local communities with their waterway and producing and distributing leaflets are some examples

In the office

It's not all about getting your hands dirty and knowing everything about boats and locks. The waterway needs the physical fabric looking after which entails a lot of behind the scenes support, planning, research and promotion.

British Waterways is developing office based roles for people who may not feel that they can do the physical work, have no interest in practical activities or have office based skills to give. These tasks could involve anything from updating information on our GIS system to data entry or researching waterway heritage in library archives. Some tasks could even be done from home.

Practical conservation and survey work

Waterways always need practical maintenance, development and restoration. This means being outside and getting some physical exercise. It does not always mean shovels, pick axes and litter pickers but it can mean using trowels, brushes and measuring equipment for archaeological digs; piling logs to make an otter holt; using chainsaws and strimmers to clear the heavier overgrowth; wearing waders to plant reads.

A great way to get a taster of this is through our annual Towpath Tidy activities in March.

Youth and education

Our WOW team lead the work that we do with school groups. Many schools visit the 2,200 mile waterway. Volunteers can assist us to help make these visits even better. Working with schools is a great way to understand what young people think of their local canal and help spread the message about safe use of their local waterway.

Working with schools isn't always as scary as some people think that it is and it can be great fun for the comments that young children make. "Did you know that towpaths are called that because the horses walked on their toes?"

Volunteering in education can be as simple as helping children on an off a boat through to leading a workshop in a classroom. Whilst safety is the watchword, it's more of a learning opportunity than a barrier.

Specific campaigns

We run or link into key campaigns to recruit volunteers each year:

Towpath Tidy is our annual campaign in the spring to remove litter, clean graffiti, cut back overgrowth and improve access. In 2009, 1700 volunteers helped us doing work on 10% of our 2,200 mile network. With the help of volunteers from our Partner Volunteer Organisations we cleared over 3100 bags of rubbish and removed 192 shopping trolleys. Those who helped said that they'd had a great time and 98% said that they'd recommend it to a friend or relative. If you were one of those people, thank you.

Partner Volunteering Organisations

There are countless volunteer organisations on British Waterway's network some of whom we work closely with, others who use our asset for their own volunteering. Some are charities, canal societies and local community groups who range in size, tasks and aims. To find out more about these organisations, their work and volunteer opportunities look at www.waterscape.com/volunteer