News Articles

Advice NI is seeking to recruit volunteers from rural communities to deliver on a LINK funded project. As part of LINK's access to cash activities, LINK wishes to support and encourage digital inclusion in the UK, including through initiatives with selected groups and individuals.

Find out the latest updates from our volunteer team, including the Begin Together – Digi Money Programme and our Rights 4 Seniors Digi Skills volunteers.

2021 was a busy year for volunteering activities within Advice NI despite the constraints of Covid19.

If you are passionate about helping people enhance their digital skills, we have exciting volunteer opportunities available.

As an organisation committed to the vision of a confident, informed society of active citizens who can access their rights and entitlements, Advice NI recognises the invaluable contribution of volunteers.

To mark another successful year of the Supporting Active Engagement project, Advice NI celebrated all the participants’ achievements with an event at Belfast Castle recently.

To mark Volunteers Week 2019, Advice NI hosted an event especially for Volunteers from across the Independent Advice Network. This event took place in June at the new Springfield Charitable Association (SCA) premises in Clonard Crescent, Belfast.

Advice NI is looking for enthusiastic and committed volunteers to assist in the delivery of the COVID 19 Community Helpline. 

As volunteer week comes to an end, everyone at Advice NI would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all our volunteers for their commitment of time, energy, and skill.

Sands Northern Ireland Network (SandsNI) is the regional branch of SandsUK. Sands was founded in 1978 by a small group of bereaved parents devastated by the death of their babies and in particular what they felt was a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the significance and impact of their loss. Sands has around 100 support groups across the UK with 10 of these in Northern Ireland. All the support groups are run by trained Sands Befrienders who are bereaved parents themselves and have been supported through their grief by Sands and are now giving that support back to other parents. Steven Guy, SandsNI Network Co-ordinator saysSandsNI provides support to bereaved parents through our monthly support evenings where parents can chat informally over a cup of tea or coffee about how they are coping with their loss. We also provide every maternity & neonatal unit in Northern Ireland with Sands leaflet packs and Memory Boxes. The Memory Boxes include a hand-knit blanket, 2(Identical) teddy bears, one for baby, one for the parents and an inkless hand & footprint kit. The boxes encourage parents to create as many memories of their baby as possible in the short time they have with them. Training, accredited by the Royal College of Midwives, is also provided to health professionals and is delivered by the SandsUK team of facilitators. We also support research into the causes of baby deaths and in 2014 £50,000 was donated by SandsNI to fund several SandsUK projects. We have a NI Helpline 07740993450 which is available during office hours for parents to speak to someone about their loss. We have a dedicated Baby Garden in Portadown where parents can lay a simple stone with their baby’s name hand-painted on it among the flowers and plants in the garden and next to the other babies stones. We also have 2 Christmas carol services, Portadown and Derry, where parents are invited to buy a toy or gift for the age their child would be each Christmas. These toys & gifts are donated to the St Vincent De Paul/ Salvation Army toy appeal. Everything we do is funded by the fundraising efforts of the parents we support and we are extremely grateful to everyone who fundraises for us because without their efforts we could not continue to support the parents who are bereaved every year in Northern Ireland.

Volunteers' Week is an annual celebration of the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated group of volunteers who work on the Supporting Active Engagement project.