Get Involved

Borders are a violent way of racially and hierarchically ordering the world and everyone in it, and are central to racial capitalism and colonial domination. We believe in a world with no borders and at Akwaaba everyone is welcome.

Far from meeting our needs, the state and capitalism inflict massive harm, including through borders. Mutual aid projects like Akwaaba are a response to this, where people take direct responsibility for meeting needs and caring for each other. It’s a political response because the ways in which we organise caring for each other lay the foundations to fight back against the structures causing harm.

We are looking for people who share these values to join us and below you can find descriptions of the different volunteer roles. If you have specialist skills or experience which might be relevant to our project but do not apply to the roles listed here, you are welcome to email (volunteers@akwaaba.org.uk). Unfortunately, for safeguarding reasons the minimum age for volunteering at Akwaaba sessions is 18.

We need more people to support our Kids’ Space, which welcomes up to 40 kids & young people (age 3-16) on Sundays for art & craft, play, sport, library time, and other activities.

If you can spare 2 Sundays (shift time: 1.45 to 5.45pm) a month and have previous experience with children, we would love to hear from you.

This is a fun, creative role, which involves playing with, supporting, and learning from an amazing community of kids and their parents/carers, while thinking deeply about and taking acting around child liberation and migrant solidarity.

Please enter your email here or contact kidsvolunteers@akwaaba.org.uk if you’re interested and we will send you more information!

Akwaaba is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults and expects all volunteers to share this commitment. The suitability of all prospective volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment.

This role requires an enhanced DBS check. Upon offering you the role, we will help you to apply for the enhanced DBS check.

Sundays 1pm – 4pm or 3pm – 7pm

Expected commitment: 2-4 Sunday sessions per month, 1 Saturday training session every 3 months, 1 weekday meeting every 3 months, occasional other meetings and events

Do you speak Polish, Arabic, Turkish, Russian or Tigrinya? Some of our members struggle to communicate in English as well as having other vulnerabilities. We need volunteers to support them during our sessions including to access the activities that we offer. You would work directly with members of our community, making them feel relaxed and welcome in the space, being open for conversation, games, arts and crafts and supporting them with translation needs.

To apply, email volunteers@akwaaba.org.uk for a volunteer registration form.

Sundays 1pm – 4pm or 3pm – 7pm

Expected commitment: 2-4 Sunday sessions per month, 1 Saturday training session every 3 months, 1 weekday meeting every 3 months, occasional other meetings and events

Welcome volunteers are the heart of the Akwaaba community. You will work directly with visitors to the project, making them feel relaxed and welcome in the space, being open for conversation or board games, supporting them to use computer facilities and running workshops.

You do not need to be an extravert to be a welcome volunteer, but you must be proactive in sessions! You should be comfortable and enthusiastic about engaging all our visitors in conversation. That includes people from a wide variety of ages and backgrounds, and with a wide range of perspectives and life experiences. People you speak to may have particular needs associated with displacement, trauma, economic hardship, or mental health issues. The people who most need the support of a Welcome Volunteer will not initiate conversations for themselves. That means it is your job to identify and speak to people who are on their own.

You will be called upon to solve problems that arise during sessions and ensure the space is safe and clean. We encourage Welcome Volunteers to take on more responsibility by arranging workshops, attending training session and participating in decision making at the project’s organising meetings.

We are particularly seeking people who have experience of working with migrants and/or a genuine interest in tackling the issues faced by our community. 2 Sundays per month is a minimum commitment, however we are looking for people who can commit to the project 3-4 Sundays per month. To apply, email volunteers@akwaaba.org.uk for a volunteer registration form. The second stage of the application process involves meeting our Welcome Volunteer Coordinator during a Sunday session.

Akwaaba’s Storytelling Group  takes place on a Sunday from 2.30-4.30 pm. It is cofacilited by two to three practicing writers and each session is led by one of these writers. We provide a safe, creative space for participants to meet in solidarity and friendship, to explore experiences and share stories. Sometimes we discuss short texts and poems; sometimes we write, tell or record our stories.

We are looking for a practising writer to join us as another cofacilitator.  If you are interested, please contact storytelling@akwaaba.org.uk

 

Main responsibilities:

  • You’d lead sessions, every two or three weeks.
  • You’d provide support for participants during sessions led by the other facilitators.
  • You’d offer one-to-one personalised support to participants on Sundays.
  • You’d contribute to planning sessions.
  • You’d be able to commit to attending the group from 2.30- 4.30pm most Sundays.
  • You’d accept and adhere to Akwaaba polices regarding: safeguarding of vulnerable adults policy, confidentiality policy, equality and diversity policy, data protection and privacy policy

Requirements

Essential experience and skills

  • Practising writer
  • Excellent communication and listening skills
  • Good at expressing thoughts and ideas
  • Ability to work in an inclusive way
  • Excellent interpersonal skills, and the ability to relate positively and in a non-discriminatory way to people at all levels, from a range of backgrounds and communities.
  • Creative approach to what stories are and how they can be told

 

Personal Qualities:

  • Friendly and able to build rapport with people
  • Open-minded flexibility
  • Reliability

Desirable experience and skills:

  • Background in writing
  • Experience in facilitating writing/storytelling workshops for adults

We are seeking a volunteer with charity fundraising experience to help keep Akwaaba running on a secure financial footing.   Most of our funding comes from trusts and foundations, but we also raise money through community fundraising like sponsorships, crowdfunders and fundraising events.

The role involves

  • Keeping our fundraising planner up to date
  • Managing our fundraising strategy so we stay on top of the applications we need to make every year, and so we can avoid writing stressful applications at the last minute
  • Writing applications to trusts and foundations
  • Supporting other volunteers to write applications (e.g. by providing help with budgeting, access to documents etc)
  • Meeting with our budgeting working group to discuss fundraising needs and priorities

Get in touch with hello@akwaaba.org.uk if you are interested!

Sundays 11.30am-12.30pm

We need volunteers with access to a car/cargo bike to help with food collections in the Stoke Newington area.