We exist on a day-by-day basis purely thanks to our volunteers, and we value every hour that someone spends volunteering for us. Although it may cost you nothing - apart from time - to us every minute is of immense value.
Please read on to see if there are ways you could help us. You might be surprised!
Cleaning out our cat pens - this needs doing every day, and we have a rota of volunteers who are able to commit themselves to the same day every week or every fortnight. Vacancies arise as people change jobs, move house or have other things happening in their lives which makes them unable to continue. This job takes about 1½-2 hours and needs to be done in the afternoon or early evening;
Stroking the cats - essential to ensure that the cats at our centre don't feel neglected or lonely. It also helps the cats get used to different people coming into their cat pens, which makes them less nervous when potential new adopters come in to meet them. Sitting and stroking or combing a cat can also highlight any problems such as knots in the cat's fur, the presence of bites and scratches and any tender areas which might otherwise be missed. This volunteering activity suits those people who cannot commit to the same day each week, and to those people who may not be able to clean out the pens due to physical constraints. This can take anything from 30 minutes to half a day - it's up to you;
Reception/admin - this is mainly a weekend requirement, although some vacancies do exist during the week. We would love to hear from anyone who can answer the phone, admit cats coming into our Centre and show potential adopters around. You will need to be computer literate to enable you to do the paperwork aspects of this. Our greatest need is for volunteers to attend on Sundays either all day on occassional weeks, or on a regular basis (weekly, fortnightly or monthly) on Sunday mornings. We prefer volunteers to attend for 3 hours (10-1, or 1-4) when undertaking this role.
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Fostering mother cats and kittens - this is essential to us for two main reasons. Firstly it frees a pen up for us at what is usually the busiest time of the year (the summer months) and secondly, and most importantly, it enables the kittens to learn to live in a normal household, so that when they are old enough to go and live with their new owners they aren't frightened by household noises etc. Haworth Cat Rescue pays for all food and any vet treatment required. You have the hard part - giving them all back when they're ten weeks old!!! Please read the information about fostering on this page if you are interested.
Poster & leaflet design - we need a lot of artwork - mainly for fundraising and information purposes. We usually need this at short notice with quite a tight deadline;
Website maintenance - we aim to keep our website up-to-date, and whilst some of this needs to be done from our Centre, a lot can be done from the comfort of your own home. You'd need to have a few web-writing skills at your disposal, and if you're an expert you may be able to help us achieve even greater things with our site. At the moment, we would really like to hear from anyone who could help us by taking and maintaining video clips of the cats at our centre, and putting them on our site;
Book selling - we get tons of books donated, and we like to see if any are worth selling on Amazon before we offer them at local events. You would be responsible for checking books against the Amazon database, and then checking the account daily to see if any have sold. You'll need some space to store the books and be able to post out any books that customers buy on a daily basis. (We can store the books at our Centre if you live nearby, but you'll need to be able to access them each day to post any). We pay for all postage and packing costs!
Social networking - everyone who has signed up to a social networking site such as Facebook, Twitter or MySpace can do this. Just tell your friends. Pass on updates about our work and keep our name out there in cyber-space.
Used postage stamps, unwanted/broken jewellery and used mobile phones - we pass these on to raise funds
Good quality unwanted items (bric-a-brac) - household items including ornaments, kitchen ware, linens, toys and books. We regret we cannot accept clothes, electrical items or large pieces of furniture. We sell donated items both online and at our table top sales to provide a robust and regular source of income to help the cats in our care.
End of line or new shop items - if you have unwanted/unsold items in the storeroom in your shop or company that you are happy for us to sell, please consider donating them. End of line items in the past have helped us to create a good income for our cats. Some people have also donated the last of their stock when they've retired or closed their business, and we have also been lucky enough to receive written off stock which we have sold.
Cat food & bedding - can you afford to add a tin or box of cat food to your basket each week or month (preferably meat, not dried food)? Perhaps if you buy a box of sachets and there is one flavour your cat doesn't like, you could donate those sachets to us? Or maybe you have time on your hands and would like to knit some blankets for our cats to sleep on.
Registered Charity 1058218