Become a Volunteer
Are you interested in working on a farm and gaining valuable experience in animal care, agriculture and loads more? We have some fantastic volunteering opportunities available now in loads of different areas on the farm, and we would love for you to join us regardless of experience. Please check the FAQ below for more information on some of the roles we have available.
Some of the areas we need volunteers in are;
(Please bullet point this list for easy reading)
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Maintenance
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Gardening
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Weeding
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Pond clearing
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Education
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Fundraising (corporate and social)
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House renovation
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Fence building
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Shed building
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Repairs, electricians and plumbers (Experience and licensed ‘trades’ needed!)
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Some of the areas we have room for volunteers in are;
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Animal care,
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Social media,
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Event planning,
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Growing fruit and veg
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Animal Care
What would be expected of you in an animal care position?
Caring for animals is a large role and requires a lot of hard work and dedication. We have a team of trustees that will head the day to day activities of you as a volunteer, letting you know what needs to be done and which areas require more attention. Currently we have two heads of animal care who will oversee the entirety of City Farm, and a trustee in charge of each animal section underneath them. These people work together as a team to look after the small domestics, aviary, and large farm animals. What we would expect from a volunteer is help with jobs such as mucking out paddocks and barns, clearing land of harmful weeds like ragwort, feeding the animals in the morning and evenings, ensuring the animals are kept to a high standard of cleanliness and health, monitoring and reporting any concerning behaviour or injuries to staff immediately, and in some cases grooming of animals. These tasks will be constantly changing and evolving to suit our needs as a farm, the requirements of the day, and the individual animals needs. No two days will ever be the same, so this is a fantastic opportunity for anyone with a good work ethic and a love of animals to gain some experience in the field.
Maintenance
What would be expected of a volunteer in maintenance?
Maintenance means to monitor the upkeep of the farm in terms of fences, paddocks, buildings and barns. Our trustee of general maintenance is in charge of making sure the farm is up to code and functions well for all our needs. If something needs repairing, is broken and needs replacing or you notice some potential problems for the future, please alert the general maintenance trustee who will attend to the problem. As a volunteer under general maintenance you will be helping with the fence upkeep, making sure the house is safe and any maintenance issues are fixed. We would love for someone to volunteer that is learning how to become a ‘tradie’, learning plumbing or electrics or plastering. At the moment, as the house is in disrepair, we need people for general maintenance now more than ever. We need able bodies to move and shift large objects, for example replacing a sink, and help with clearing out the rubbish that is currently in the house. We will need people that can paint a wall, help with the renovations of the house and are all around just willing to get stuck in and help with any job we need doing.
While we are hoping for volunteers that already have experience in DIY and home renovation, we understand that may not always be the case and are happy to accept anyone that is willing to muck in and do their part. And we can guarantee there will be a lot of mucking in! As soon as we have the house clear, there will be a lot of weeding and thinning out of the overgrowth on the land. This site has been abandoned for nearly 12 years now, so we need all hands on deck to get it back in running order.
Events Managment
What is expected of a volunteer in Events management?
You would be working closely with our trustee in charge of events management to come up with new and fun ideas for raising money for the farm and promoting us as a fun family day out. You will have imaginative ways of getting people to visit the farm, pitch the ideas to the team, and work closely with the trustee of event management to make these plans a reality. We will need people with ideas for big holidays such as Christmas, Easter and Halloween. You will also have the fantastic opportunity to help with the event itself! That could be in the form of hosting a tombola, attending and taking money for a race night, or setting up a kids event. You will have the opportunity to work with the trustee to create a fun activity or event that promotes the farm, promotes education, and most of all helps us with raising funds to continue to be a free entry attraction.
Social Media
What is expected of a trustee in Social Media?
Our social media trustee is in charge of our Facebook page, emails, phone, PR and media appearance, as well as helping provide content for the website you’re on now. Helping out with social media as a volunteer means you may be given a camera to walk around the farm and take photos during the construction, volunteer days, events and more. You may have the opportunity to write blog posts about animal care or farm life, or write up copy for events that are going to be held. As a social media volunteer you will gain experience in helping write and produce content for the facebook page and any other social media platforms we may eventually create. You will have a good understanding of how social media works, good English and grammar skills, and a willingness to learn, just like with any role! Working on social media can be very rewarding, especially when you get positive interactions on your posts, photos and blogs. We will only need a handful of people to work in social media, so if you are interested please do ask as we will delegate on a first come first serve basis.
Social and Corporate FundRaising
What is expected of a volunteer in social and corporate fundraising?
This area is headed by the trustee in charge of Fundraising, and you as the volunteer will help with the fundraising in two different aspects. Writing bids for large corporate companies to donate to the farm may require some experience in bid writing and how corporate fundraising works. We will provide some informal training on how to write these bids if you are excited to learn how! Writing to large companies asking for time, equipment, materials or money will ensure that we can continue as a charity without making sizable purchases that eat into our funds. We want to be able to spend our funding on important things like animal welfare, introducing educational visits to the farm, and running a cafe on site. Being able to ask for support from corporate and government bodies will greatly increase our funding and gives us a massive boost in terms of opportunities.
Social fundraising is a little more relaxed and a little different to corporate fundraising. We would like volunteers that are trustworthy and will go around collecting full donation tubs from our various locations around Stoke-on-Trent. These tubs will be full of coins and cash that will then be taken to our treasurer who will then put the donations into our bank for further use. What we would like is for a volunteer to collect these tubs, provide a thank you certificate of charity work to each business upon collection (if it is their first time collecting for us) and to send the information of who we have collected from to the social media trustee who will then celebrate on social media. The volunteer will also have the opportunity of working closely with the trustee of event management to help come up with ideas for fundraising, and will attend events to ensure that we are achieving a set goal. We are also looking for a volunteer that may have experience in crowd funding websites who could help us potentially set up some crowd funders to raise money for things like a defibrilator, a cooker for the cafe, suitable disabled bathroom equipment and so on. We would love to hear from you if you do have this experience!
Growing Fruit & Veg
What would be expected of a volunteer in Agriculture?
Growing Fruit and Veg is a wide variety of jobs and tasks. You will work closely with the trustee in charge of agriculture and a team of people that want to learn all about the growing process of fruit and veg. There will be opportunities for you to help in various ‘gardening’ areas for the farm, helping to recreate the pond and turn it back into a wildlife hub, helping rebuild the sensory garden, and helping to maintain the vegetation that grows on the land. We will need volunteers that can help us plant up bee friendly flowers and plants around our small apiary, and volunteers that will help with harvesting and providing food for the animals on the farm. You’ll learn a whole host of techniques and get the opportunity to work under people with years of experience and education in the agricultural industry.
Find Out More
Get in touch so we can start working together.