About volunteering

'Victory is not won in miles but in inches. Win a little now and hold your ground. Later, win a little more.'

Volunteering should be fun!

Since 2005, our organisation has had more than three thousand volunteers, the great majority of them people who have fought their own battles with addiction, and many of them often in structured treatment for their substance use while volunteering with us. We could start a small country with all of the wonderful people who have volunteered with us over the years!

Our criteria for volunteering is unique for a charity working in the addictions field. We tore up the idea of a 'clean time' rule in our first year of operation back in 2005, and followed that by kicking into touch the any thought that a potential volunteer needed to bring any more to the table than themselves, the only caveat being that they could not be under the influence of a non-prescribed mind altering substance when they turned up to volunteer. If you want to volunteer, we want you on board our little ship!

Still in treatment and having the odd binge? We can work with that. Never had a paid job and with no real experience of routine and structure? Not a problem. Little or no education, and  find it a struggle to read and write? It doesn't matter. Anxious and lacking in confidence? Join the club and welcome to BoB!

As described in 'our values and ethos', we put a great deal of effort into looking after our volunteer teams and pride ourselves on being able to offer volunteer opportunities to anyone who wants to join us. All of our volunteers receive travel expenses, something to eat, one-to-one supervision and can access to our in-house training programme as often as they want. Every year we hold a volunteer award ceremony in the town hall in Kensington and Chelsea, where along with great food and a lot of laughter we celebrate the passion, commitment and achievements of the people who make this charity the force for good that it is. We love our volunteer teams and welcome you into joining us.