Cardiff Council has launched the ‘Together for Cardiff’ initiative to coordinate volunteering across our city.

The Council is encouraging anyone who would like to volunteer their time helping others affected by the current situation to co-ordinate their efforts through the Volunteer Cardiff website, which can provide information about current volunteer opportunities.

The website will act as a brokering service, matching people who want to help with volunteering opportunities across the city and will help safeguard volunteers and those they are seeking to help by managing connections in an appropriate way, including facilitating DBS checks where necessary.

There are lots of ways you can help :

• Help with shopping?
• Help with dog walking?
• Help people who are ill or self isolating?
• Help with litter picking and other community schemes

Visit the Together for Cardiff website here for volunteering opportunities.

Council Volunteering Guidelines

Volunteers

• Do not enter people’s homes even if invited
• Where possible visit in pairs
• When visiting people, maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) distance between yourself and anyone
• Avoid close contact with people who have symptoms of coronavirus
• Only travel on public transport if you need to
• Do not give out your personal phone number, address, social media account details or other personal identification to individuals
• Do not give or lend money to individuals, or take personal payments for tasks

Public

• Everyone should do what they can to stop coronavirus spreading. It is particularly important for people who are 70 or over, have a long-term health condition, are pregnant and or have a weakened immune system
• Do not give out your bank details, PIN number or passwords
• Never hand over your card for someone to visit the shops on your behalf
• Ask the person for identification to confirm it is the person you are expecting to visit you
• If someone claims to be from a company or organisation, always ask and check identification, if unsure find the number of the company independently from a directory and phone to check
• Use a door chain to put you in control and consider using a password scheme
• Ask for a receipt for any shopping before providing any money – do not pay cash in advance (for example for groceries)
• Avoid close contact as much as possible
• Groceries should be left on your doorstep. Do not permit any volunteer into your home under any circumstances

While welcoming the community response and tide of good will prevalent across the city at the moment, the Council also wants to alert individuals who will be receiving help to the possibility of  potential scams or opportunists taking advantage at this time.