Volunteer with Young Healthwatch

What is Young Healthwatch?

Young Healthwatch is part of Healthwatch East Sussex, an organization which listens to the public and feeds information back to decision makers to help make services better for people. Young Healthwatch looks at the healthcare issues that directly effect young people. We aim to ensure that young people’s thoughts, ideas and experiences are listened to and acted upon by decision makers, to make things better for young people across the county.

Why volunteer?

Volunteering is a fantastic opportunity to develop your skills and gain valuable experience that can help you as you move through education and employment. Volunteering can be really flexible and there are lots of ways to take part. Volunteering is also a great way to meet new friends who have similar interests to you.

Who can volunteer?

Young Healthwatch is open to all young people between the ages of 12-21 living and/or studying in East Sussex.

You don’t need any previous experience or knowledge to be able to volunteer with us, just some spare time and a real interest in helping to make things better for young people.

What do volunteers do?

Volunteers take part in meetings to plan activity and discuss ideas. These meetings are scheduled at times which suit our volunteers (e.g. in the evenings or during school holidays).

Volunteers have the opportunity to take part in a range of activities and events depending on what project they are working on. This might include:

• Visits to services e.g. hospitals/GP practices etc.
• Designing surveys
• Designing and creating artwork, pieces of writing and/or social media posts
• Attending events and being a voice for young people

Is volunteering accessible for me?

We aim to make all activity as accessible as possible for everyone volunteering with us. Wherever possible activity is planned during school holidays and/or after school hours, to make sure that our volunteers are able to take part. We pay expenses (e.g. travel costs) so that cost isn’t a barrier to volunteering.

We welcome all young people to volunteer with us, and believe that having a disability or other additional needs should not be a barrier to volunteering.  We can support you to make sure that you are able to fully take part in volunteering activities. Any information you share with us about your health/disability and/or additional needs is confidential.

What is the time commitment?

Time commitment: How much time you spend volunteering depends on you, what you are interested in and what projects and events we currently have for you to get involved in. As a guide, we suggest that you should be able to commit 4 hours per month to the role (although this is flexible and can be less or more as needed/wanted).

Duration: Flexible. Some may only want to volunteer for a few months, or for a certain project, while others may want to volunteer for longer periods.

Hear from some of our Young Healthwatch volunteers and what they do to help shape health and care in East Sussex

“Young Healthwatch has given me insight into the importance of the public voice in improving the health and social care services they use…Young Healthwatch has motivated me to take forward what I’ve learnt (specifically about having independent champions of patient voices) to my career”

“I felt so supported throughout (Young Healthwatch) and it has definitely helped me with my confidence, as well as feeling like I am having a positive impact on something really important.”

“I have found volunteering for Healthwatch brilliant and have been able to work from home giving me the flexibility to do my hours around my studying.”

For more information or to apply

For more information about Young Healthwatch volunteering or any of our other volunteer roles, please get in touch.

Volunteer – Healthwatch East Sussex

Email volunteer@escv.org.uk

Call 01323 403590

East Sussex Community Voice has been delivering the Healthwatch programme across East Sussex since 2013