We may be thinking about what we want to experience, the people we may meet and the difference we can make to our lives and the environment in which we live.

As an organisation, we’re always looking at what we’ve achieved for wildlife – the wins we’ve had, and the challenges we face and we look to the future, seeing where we can make a difference on our Reserves, in our communities and through our projects such as the Fifth Continent and Wooden it Be Crafty. However, we never lose sight of the difference that people make to our work, and I never stop being totally inspired by those who donate their time and energy to support our work, as well as across the wider conservation sector in the county. It’s easy for us to see the difference that our volunteers make; work is carried out on our reserves, making them the very best for wildlife they can be, surveys are completed to demonstrate the impact of what this hard work does in our Ecology Groups.

New people engage with nature through our programme of events the work of our Local Groups and schools programme. Schools and organisations get involved and have fun outdoors through our Forest School programme, entrants to our Wild About Garden Awards scheme receive visits and advice and our supporters and membership continue to grow. Absolutely none of this would be possible without our amazing volunteers. Over 1,000 volunteers support us in a variety of ways from donating a few hours per month, up to joining us every week for our task days – our work isn’t just outside, with volunteer roles at Visitor Centres, from our Head Office or even from home.

Our volunteers tell us that they feel the benefit of volunteering too. Many have met new people, feel better for being outside and making a contribution to our shared world and communities, others have told us about improvements to their own physical or mental wellbeing. Our volunteers have also been able to share their existing skills or gain new ones; and we’re working hard to support them in as many ways as possible – offering roles which meet their expectations, providing ways in which they can share their ideas and knowledge and aiming for our volunteers to have the best experience they can with us. We’re always looking for new volunteers to join our team and we hope that you’ll consider supporting our work when thinking about what you’re hoping to achieve in 2018 and we hope these ideas will provide some inspiration for your own plans for the year ahead:

Want to spend more time outdoors?

Our Practical Conservation volunteer teams work at Reserves across the county on different days of the week (including weekends during the winter months). You don’t need any previous experience, but must be happy to be outside in all weather and willing to get stuck in!

Find out about where and when our tasks take place. 

We are hosting a taster day for volunteers to join us and see what our work is all about. This is on 17 January at The Gill in Goudhurst.

Want to learn a new skill?

We hope that all of our volunteer roles will provide volunteers with an opportunity to learn something new – either through on the role learning, practical learning or through specific training courses. However if you were looking at gaining experience of working in the charity sector within a busy marketing team, we are currently looking for Digital Media Volunteers and Membership Retention volunteers.

Our Guardians of the Deep team are currently recruiting for volunteers to join their Coastal Guardian programme across the Medway and Deal-Dungeness areas – this is a really flexible role for anyone who loves being on the coastline, training in species ID and reporting is provided.

Don’t forget that many other organisations look for volunteers to support their work, and we’d recommend visiting Countryside Jobs or www.do-it.org