Little Green Sock Project are delighted to offer team days and volunteering opportunities to businesses who want to help a good cause. It’s an excellent way for employees to see our work in action, understand more about child poverty in Greater Manchester and how community action can make a difference.
We strongly feel that all children should have access to the essentials they need for their health and wellbeing and that is where we play a vital role.
We support children aged from birth up to 16 years by taking donations of new and pre-loved children’s clothing and equipment. The items are donated by our community which are then sorted, cleaned and safety checked, ensuring they are ready to be re-homed to families in need.
We often need additional hands to help us with these tasks which is where a team of corporate volunteers can really help!
“We have all come away really inspired by how a small idea has grown… I was sorry to wake up this morning and have to go back to my day job!”
Team AutoTrader 2024
“Brilliant day, I will definitely be encouraging others to volunteer for you!
Team AutoTrader 2024
“It was a wonderful experience being able to help such an amazing charity and know that we really made a difference”
Laura NatWest 2024
FAQs
Why Volunteer at Little Green Sock Project?
Little Green Sock Project team volunteer days are very rewarding and provide a sense of achievement. Volunteering together can enhance team bonding as you work together to complete tasks, or challenge each other to who can complete the most tasks the quickest. You will leave the day feeling fulfilled knowing you have helped support vulnerable children living in our community.
Where does the volunteering take place?
Volunteering takes place at our warehouse in Trafford Park (near Asda!)
Travelling to the premises
There is a small car park onsite, as well as road parking on surrounding roads. Alternatively you can park in Cosco or Trafford Centre car park with a 10 min walk. There are lots of bus routes to Trafford centre, and the Trafford Centre Metrolink is less than 10 min walk.
What times do your sessions run?
Our volunteering day starts at 10:20am, starting with a welcome and safety briefing, before tasks are explained and teams split up into smaller groups for the activities. We ask all teams to arrive between 10am-10:15am for a prompt start at 10:20am.
We finish the session at 2:45pm, the early finish a welcome relief for the teams who have been hard at work!
Can I volunteer as an individual on my own?
We are unable to accommodate one-off individual volunteers due to the time/resources required for training unless you can commit to regular volunteering bi-monthly. The minimum team size is 4.
What will we be doing in the session?
Activities for our teams are planned based on the needs of our operational priorities, and your team will be providing a welcomed boost of our workforce for the day to help us power through incoming donations and referrals. This could involve our core work of sorting and quality checking donations of clothing, footwear, cleaning and quality checking equipment items, preparing bundles ready for dispatch to a family in need. Or it could be participation in a seasonal activity or project, such as preparing our Back to School support, preparing our Magical Christmas shop ready to welcome families. Either way, the team will get hands on with all things baby bank, and come away from the day knowing they have supported local families in one way or another!
What do we need to wear?
Volunteering with us is a good chance to escape the office, and as such you’ll be on your feet for much of the time during the day. Make sure you wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
Layering your clothes accordingly is a good idea as temperatures will depend on the time of year and what task you are allocated. Our warehouse can get cold!
We’ll provide a Little Green Sock Project apron so you are part of the team!
How many people can take part?
Teams of between 4-8 people.
Can you take larger teams?
We can on occasion accommodate larger teams up to 15 people, however this requires significant planning, workload and supervision, and we can only offer this option alongside a financial contribution of £20 per person to cover our costs of planning and hosting the event. This can be invoiced and paid via BACS, or by cheque. If you would like to discuss this further please send us a message and we’ll give you a call.
Will refreshments be provided?
We keep well stocked with tea, coffee and cold drinks which the volunteers can help themselves to throughout the session. We recommend bringing a packed lunch, or you could pop to the shops on the lunch break. We have a fridge which you are welcome to store your lunch in to keep it cool, and a microwave to heat it up.
Is there a cost?
There is no charge for team volunteering. However we would welcome a voluntary donation to the charity to help cover the costs of hosting the day. Suggested donation £20 per person.
Can we bring in items to donate?
Thank you for asking. We’d love it if you brought donations with you on the day. You’ll be able to see for yourself how important they are. You may even get to make up a pack using them or see them leave for their new home. Kindly refer to our Monthly Wish List to see what items we need right now, or we always need larger nappies and new, essential toiletries to complement the packs we make up. You could do an office collection of toiletries before your volunteering day!
What if we need to cancel the day?
We know that things can happen unexpectedly and you may have a couple of team members drop out. This is normally nothing to stress about. However if there are multiple people dropping out it can cause operational challenges on our end – especially if the team is booked in for a project based activity. As we plan our tasks and workload around team support please give us plenty of notice if your team needs to cancel so we’re able to find a replacement team!
We’re up for it! How do we book?
If you’ve got this far and fancy coming to join us for the day as a team we’d love that! We use a scheduling tool called Sign Up to manage our team volunteering diary. The person taking the organisational lead will just need to book an available date, and enter their contact details. You’ll be sent a confirmation from Sign Up (you may need to check junk mail for this). You can book your date here
The date we need isn’t available
Unfortunately we can only host teams for free during our core working hours and days (Tues-Thurs, 10am-2:45pm).
Hosting outside of these times is at the discretion and availability of the volunteer co-ordinator and team manager, and we can only offer this option alongside a financial contribution of £500. If you would like to discuss this option please email info@littlegreensock.org with the dates/times you are looking to hold an event.