Volunteers
Volunteering with a local charity
We have a great team of volunteers from all walks of life. Some work in the shop, some drive and lift in the van doing collections and deliveries and others work behind the scenes.
People do as many hours as they like, often a regular slot each week or an occasional shift to help out. Not only do they work hard, but they have great conversations with anyone that chooses to pop into Resurrection Furniture!
Reasons for volunteering with Resurrection Furniture
Volunteering can be extremely rewarding! We provide a safe space for community, allowing volunteers and shop visitors to share each others company whilst working towards a great cause.
If any of the points below resonate with you, we’d recommend
getting in touch!
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You love having great conversations with people
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You want to fill your spare time with meaningful work
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You want to have flexibility over your working hours
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You’re looking to gain work experience as a student or DoE individual
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You’d like to return to work, and need some up-to-date experience
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You have a skill that you think could help the shop, see below for details
Skills we’re actively looking for in volunteers
We are extremely thankful for anyone who wishes to help around the store. There are a few jobs that are even more so desired in order to make the day-to-day run more smoothly.
If you have any of these skills, we'd love to hear from you!
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Shop design and layout
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Marketing & social media
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Lifters & drivers for the van
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Window dressing
Elaine on working in the shop
Hello! My name is Elaine Cook and I’ve been involved with Resurrection Furniture since its inception.
You’ll find me on Thursdays in the shop selling things, to all kinds of people, that they didn’t know they had to have in their life until they saw them! We never know what we’ll have donated to us from day to day which adds variety and interest to the job and it’s very satisfying when someone finds a piece that they really love. Our prices are set at an affordable level and you can often pick up a real bargain. With the rise of programmes such as The Repair Shop and Money for Nothing people are now realising the value in upcycling and re-using pre- loved things.
It’s what we used to do in the fairly recent past and can only be good for the environment, our planet and our pockets. By volunteering I like to think I’m doing my bit towards helping people achieve a more sustainable way of living. On my shift I insist on proper coffee and always make one for the van drivers (which makes me popular) and we often have cake and pastries! So, if you are looking to volunteer somewhere in town, I can highly recommend Resurrection Furniture. The whole team are great fun to be with and your commitment can be as much or as little as you can give. Just be aware that may find yourself going home with a new sofa!
Behind the scenes with Mike
My name is Mike and I'm part of the workshop team repairing furniture and goods donated to the shop. I'm a retired Design Engineer and keen amateur woodworker who likes to get his hands dirty! At the back of the shop we have a good sized workshop equipped for furniture restoration as well as undertaking the safety testing of electrical items. Work ranges from tightening screws on flat-packed furniture to fitting new plugs on table lamps. I particularly enjoy working on vintage and antique furniture. It's very satisfying to see things recycled instead of ending up in landfill.
If you're a practically minded person we'd love to hear from you. We particularly welcome interest from young people who would like to gain basic skills. Contact the shop manager to see how you can support us.
Tim’s views from the cab
I am one half of the Chuckle Brothers, the other half being Clive Muller. We normally work on the Resurrection Furniture van on Wednesday mornings come rain or shine. The work can be quite demanding, especially when some customers insist that the 3ft wide piece of furniture they have purchased will fit through their 2ft 6” wide front door.
Having both been engineers during our working life, we often scratch our heads and smile when Clive utters his immortal words ‘really’! We invariably rise to the challenge however and nearly always manage to get the said piece of furniture into their house one way or another. In the past this has involved removing front doors, passing furniture through windows and on one occasion actually sawing the piece of furniture in half!
One of the nicest things about working on the van is meeting the customers we deliver to, most of whom, bar the odd exception, are very grateful for what we do, especially when we go the extra mile to help them.
- Tim Codling
Meet the team
Some of our volunteers have taken on specialist roles, such as P.A.T. testing or sorting and pricing bric-a-brac, while the rest are happy to help out where needed.
