Make it your New Year's resolution to volunteer for the NSPCC Oxfordshire

Children's charity the NSPCC is asking residents of Oxfordshire to think of them when making your New Year's resolutions for 2019.

The NSPCC in Oxfordshire is recruiting new volunteers for its schools’ service and fundraising branches to start in the first months of the new year.

For the charity’s schools’ service, Speak Out Stay Safe, volunteers go into primary schools to teach children to recognise abuse and neglect through age-appropriate safeguarding assemblies and workshops.

Pupils are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a trusted adult or to Childline.

Volunteers spoke to 21,529 children in Oxfordshire in the 2017-2018 academic year, delivering assemblies at 101 primary schools in the county.

Julie Hilton, NSPCC Schools Service Manager, said: “I really admire that our volunteers give up their time to make a difference to the lives of children.

“We have had children who have spoken out about abuse as a direct result of our volunteers going into schools delivering the programme.

“It is so rewarding for the volunteers to know they have directly helped a child, and we give every one of them excellent training so they know how to manage these situations.”

There are also several opportunities to volunteer as a fundraiser for the NSPCC as part of one of the charity’s many local fundraising groups.

Up and down the country, there are over 1,000 groups of fundraising volunteers and small businesses, working in their local areas, raising money allowing the NSPCC to continue to provide services for abused and neglected children.

Debbie Knights, community fundraising manager for Oxfordshire, said: “We rely on the public for 90 per cent of our funding so we can continue our life-changing child protection work.

“Our volunteer fundraisers are heroes, and without them, we simply couldn’t do the work we do.

She added: “If you’ve been thinking about fundraising for the NSPCC, now is your chance to get involved and help us reach and protect children in crisis.”

To find out about opportunities at fundraising groups in Oxfordshire and to get involved, email [email protected] or call 0203 763 2302.

To find out about volunteering for the NSPCC’s Schools Service and to apply, visit www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/volunteering-nspcc-childline.