Squirrel

My mum has volunteered in a couple of different charity shops. All the sales assistants are volunteers (or doing community service) except the manager. The manager is the only one who is paid.

Of course I don't think they have charity shops in the US in the way we do.

Bob

And?

That doesn't mean that all those folks in all the charity shops in the UK are voluntary and it isn't in the US either.

It'll be one of those grey areas, where if one had plans of staying in the US, might like to avoid the ambiguity. Especially when there are plenty of other opportunities that are real voluntary work that wouldn't be considered "work".

Squirrel

Well I'd be very surprised if anyone can find a paid job as a sales assistant in a charity shop, because they don't have any shortage of volunteers and they simply do not have paid work, my mum would have liked to get a paid job if she could, even for a few hours, but there was none going because those positions aren't paid.

Obviously though you know better.

christmasoompa

A lot have a massive shortage of volunteers, or don't want to rely on volunteers that may not be reliable - my mother-in-law works in a charity shop in Berkshire, and is paid. She has worked in 3 charity shops over the past 12 years, and all have been paid positions.

Bob

This.

A lot of the larger charities, that are open regular business hours and especially weekends, do have paid positions, especially for money and credit card handling.

MummyKitty

I really like the idea of the child advocacy role, and also th animal shelter idea. Assuming I can do these fairly local to home, do you forsee any issues with these roles, or are they both ambiguous, as above?!

I really enjoy counselling work, I'd love to be able to find a voluntary role where I get to talk with people who are having a tough time, particularly as it may help me with a job when I'm in a position to be able to apply for paid work.

Bob

Those would be more safer as voluntary work, as to how local to home, would depend on the city.

Other things that are good would be meals on wheels type of deal, especially for the elderly, soup kitchens and that kind of stuff

Squirrel

My mum will be very annoyed to know that these big charities do pay people in some towns but not hers. She volunteers for Cancer Research UK and in the past has done so for The British Heart Foundation, pretty big charities. Both jobs involved her taking card payments and cashing up.

Elvira

My local Cancer Research and British Heart shops are also staffed entirely by volunteers, I believe. But Oxfam staff are definitely on the payroll. Some others seem to have a mix of paid and unpaid staff.

Can you tell I know my way around the charity shops...

Apfelkuchen

The first quotation above from Bob suggests that the important thing is whether the organisation you volunteer for also employs people doing the same job. The second quotation was written in response to Squirrel saying that her mum has worked in charity shops where all the assistants were volunteers and implies that what actually matters is whether anyone, anywhere is paid to do the kind of work you volunteer for.

If the latter is true, I am curious as to why it would be any different with counselling, given that lots of people get paid to be counsellors.