A career in the charity sector can be very rewarding. Spending each day helping others can make you feel that you are having a real impact within your community. If you’re wondering how to get involved in charity work, you need to know what a career in a disability charity involves to ensure that you possess the correct qualities and skills. So if you’re looking for a career in charity or special needs jobs, find out more in this guide from Seashell.
How to get involved with charity work
When thinking of getting started in charity work, you need to be sure that you are aware of the requirements and realities of getting involved before you do so. As you may be aware, salaries in charities usually tend to be lower than other jobs in the private sector. As a result, you must be a person who has a genuine interest in making a difference within your local community and may have previously been a volunteer with special needs students or partaken in other charitable activities. The rewarding feeling from doing this, however, is what gets people interested and leads people to stay in charity work.
Before applying for a position, charities normally like to see within your CV that you are enthusiastic about caring for people. This doesn’t mean that you have to already have had masses of experience within charity work but you must have some other way of showing that you are the sort of person that would thrive within this environment.
Volunteering for charity work is a good way to get a foot in the door if you have no prior experience. Often, local charities can benefit from an extra helping hand, and this will go a long way to getting some valuable experience to put on your CV. Having practical experience in community fundraising within the charity sector will be impressive to an employer and having this is usually favoured over solely having theoretical knowledge.
Qualities of a charity worker
The typical qualities of a charity worker are based on their ability to fit within the demanding environment that charity work can bring and to be compatible with the various people they will interact with daily. So if you’ve been wondering how to get involved in charity work, here are some of the typical qualities that may be expected of you:
- Flexibility and innovation
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Organisational skills
- An upbeat and positive personality
- Strong multitasking and teamwork skills
- Enthusiasm for the job and the people involved
Starting your career at Seashell
Seashell is a charity that endeavours to help young people with complex needs develop key skills and creates a safe and fun environment in which they can thrive. If you would like to start a career in charity, we have many different positions available for you to get started here.
Before you have a look at our positions, browse our website to find out more about what sort of charity we are and our disability services in Manchester. To become even more clued up, we have plenty of information for you to read up on about what we do within our organisation to get an idea of what the day-to-day environment would be like.
When you’ve done that, be sure to check our website for vacancies at Seashell regularly as we are always looking for new team members. The positions we have are varied as it takes a diverse team to make sure all parts of the charity are running smoothly. Whether it’s at our specialist residential schools, Royal College Manchester or our residential care for learning disabilities, we have many vacancies available for people of varied career backgrounds so it is always worth looking to see if there is a position that’s right for you.
If you aren’t able to find a position that suits you on our website, you can get in touch with someone from our recruitment team who will be more than happy to have a friendly chat with you about the options that we can provide.
Working with Seashell
Now that you know how to get involved in charity work, why not work alongside Seashell? We are always excited to welcome new team members at Seashell and offer amazing perks like the termly Seashell Central staff engagement initiative. We sell branded clothing, free drinks and snacks and invite people from a range of services to attend to speak about their priorities and communicate anything that they feel is important. We also have a variety of external guests, offering things like money advice and have even enjoyed visits from Manchester Bike Kitchen who fixed people’s bikes.
With a long-established history of providing high-quality care to people with SEND, joining our team will place you within a beneficial environment where both you and the residents of our community will thrive. We hope you have gained valuable insight into how to have a career in the charity sector.
If you’d like to get in touch with Seashell to find out more about our positions and get help with any other queries you may have about us and our services, contact us on 0161 610 0100 or email us at info@seashelltrust.org.uk.
