The service currently has 334 active volunteers across 13 different roles in our 36 libraries and out in the community, and in the last year alone collectively gave around 16,500 hours of their time to help others.
It’s a special year for the library service as it celebrates 100 years of being in the heart of West Sussex communities and it also has the largest number of volunteers at the county council.
Below we highlight three of the roles where we need more volunteers to give their time to help other local people fulfil their potential, which is one of the council’s key priorities.
Home Library Direct – volunteers visit housebound people in their own homes or care homes, choosing, delivering and returning library items for them. This is the service’s oldest voluntary role stretching back as far as the 1930s.
There is a real need for Home Library Direct volunteers in the Durrington and Broadwater areas of Worthing and there is also high demand in Crawley and East Grinstead.
View this video to see a volunteer visiting a Home Library Direct customer.
Read on - this is a learn to read scheme for adults with little or no literacy skills where volunteers are matched with adult learners and give one to one sessions in libraries helping them develop their reading skills.
Read On volunteers are needed in Crawley, Rustington and Bognor Regis libraries.
There are currently 20 Read On volunteers supporting adult learners in nine libraries and since April last year they’ve completed over 100 sessions and given almost 400 hours of their time.
Summer Reading Challenge – This is a national reading scheme delivered in libraries each year and is free for children to take part. The scheme runs from July to September and this year the theme is ‘Story Garden’.
We’re looking for volunteers aged 14 plus to support the scheme in all our 36 libraries.
The role involves helping families and young children sign up to the scheme and talking to children about the books they are reading as well as handing out stickers and free activities.
The online application will go live in early May and further details will be available soon in your local library and on our West Sussex Libraries Homepage - West Sussex.
Other library services that have volunteers include:
- Digital volunteerswho help people learn the basics of using computers and the internet, either on a one-to-one basis or by assisting group classes.
- Melody for the Mind volunteers who help run regular sessions, singing songs and rhymes, to bring people with dementia and their carers together.
- Reading Group volunteers run library-based reading groups or set up new reading groups in your area.
Find a full list of library volunteer roles here and details about how to apply.
Volunteers gain from their roles as well as the people they are helping. As a Home Library Direct volunteer said: “The pleasure it gives others, that’s why I do it.”
Other bonuses include:
- having a more active lifestyle and improved sense of wellbeing
- developing new skills and retaining existing skills
- meeting new people and making friends
- learning and experiencing new activities and challenges
- gaining confidence, improved self-esteem and a sense of satisfaction.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Cabinet member for Community Support, Fire and Rescue said: “Our 36 libraries really are at the heart of the community and the volunteers are an integral part of it, helping people with a wide range of needs, from children who take part in the Summer Reading scheme, people who need help with their digital skills, adults who want to improve their literacy and bringing people with dementia and their carers together for therapeutic singing.”
If you are not already a member of the library, it’s quick and easy to join if you live or work in West Sussex.
Find out more about the library service’s centenary celebration events here.