Reach in your area - North East England and Cumbria
Reach operates a dedicated office for the Region. This local presence enables us to enhance our services significantly and support voluntary organisations and volunteers right across the North East and Cumbria.
The operation is managed by
Regional Director Kathleen Urwin
and a team of 2 volunteer
Regional Managers.
North East and Cumbria Office
Room 2
36 Bridge Street
Morpeth NE61 1NL
Kathleen Urwin (Regional Director, North East & Cumbria), Tel 01670 505500
Cumbria
Lalik Nasmyth , Volunteer Regional Manager, Tel 01229 468525
North East
Sean Fugill , Volunteer Regional Manager, Tel 01670 516293
Reach currently offers a wide variety of exciting volunteering opportunities in the North East, in Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Cleveland, Durham & Cumbria. These include one-off projects and regular commitments, some involving office hours and others involving time in the evenings or at weekends. We will match volunteers to the organisations that need their skills.
If you represent a voluntary organisation or are a potential volunteer our Regional Director Kathleen Urwin will be delighted to talk to you about how Reach can meet your specific needs.
Outcomes of our work throughout the North East and Cumbria
Over the last 2 1/2 years 1,091 North East and Cumbria voluntary organisations have been supported by the Reach team working out of the Morpeth office.
Testimonials from the region
"The team at REACH have been extremely active in Northumberland, forging very effective links between social enterprise and volunteers. This in turn has been useful in support of the Northumberland Enterprise Culture Strategy showing a good understanding of how their role and the county's economic strategy can work together to produce positive outcomes. Northumberland is very proud of its partnership structure and recognise that REACH plays an important and effective role in partnership working in the county."
Dee Stephenson
NSP Enterprise Manager
"The voluntary sector often requires professional help to assist it with governance, staff management issues, developing policies and strategies, financial management and business planning. Through Reach, volunteers with expertise can be found to provide this level of support on a pro-bono basis. Volunteers come with a range of voluntary and business experience and many years of working in the region and beyond. With the assistance of the Reach regional team organisations and experts can be matched, who then work together to make a difference to the delivery of services in the region."
Anne Burleigh
Voluntary Sector consultant
"I have known about Reach since the mid 1970s and, right through to the turn of the century, high calibre Reach volunteers helped many local Mind associations in the North East and Cumbria to launch and develop. More recently, working in the generalist voluntary and community sector in North Northumberland, I was thrilled to discover a Reach regional presence. To have such close personal contact has been a real bonus; negotiations have been much more efficient and effective. When a local Volunteer Centre could not identify for itself a pioneering strategist, Reach came up with the perfect volunteer. Later, when the same Volunteer Centre needed someone skilled in change management and diplomacy, Reach scored again! Wow!"
Kelvin Rushworth
Chair, North East England Volunteering Development Council
"We have had two Reach volunteers who compliment each other very well and they have tried to direct us in the right direction. …Reach also provided a very good service."
Peter Bryars
The Bottleworks, Social Enterprise in SE Northumberland
"Reach is the only group that I have found that is actively placing professional people who are prepared to use their skills in voluntary work of a project nature. The benefit of the NE base is that it can act as a focal point for both local charities, and branches of national charities, which is much more difficult to achieve remotely."
Karami Ure, Volunteer
An example of a successful Reach placement in the North East
Barbara Henderson
A senior broadcast journalist for the
BBC in the North East, Barbara has
contributed her press experience
to publicise the mission of Hives
Save Lives, which through Apiculture
is alleviating poverty in Africa.
Despite her full-time job and raising
two children, Barbara is a School
Governor and also a volunteer
press officer with Borders Organic
Gardeners, promoting organic
gardening methods in the Scottish
Borders.
Below is a selection of charities and voluntary organisations we are currently or have recently supported in the North East of England |
|
Alnwick International Music Festival Cancer Trust Age Concern Darlington Age Concern Northumberland ITCH Network Alzheimers Teeside Emmaus Chinese Arts Association Elizabeth Finn Four Acre Trust North East Save the Children Relate Northern Oak Credit Union
|
Contact Mental Health Gateshead Sight Service Woodland Trust North Northumberland Hospice West End Refugee Service Prince's Trust MSS Darlington Tees Valley Neurological South Lakeland Carers St Cuthberts Care Chester le Street CVS Volunteer Centre Northumberland Cumbria Mental Health |
Remember, this is only a small selection of the voluntary organisations in the North East of England - and charities are registering new opportunities with Reach daily.