Volunteer for Redbridge and be part of a community that loves its borough

Redbridge is filled with amazing volunteers that help make the borough a great place to live. From community gardeners to repair café heroes, and litter picking champions – there is no shortage of community spirit in our borough.

It happens where you see it, such as in charity shops, and where you don’t, such as neighbours lending each other a helping hand. It all matters, and it all improves our communities and our lives.

For Volunteers’ Week 2025 we’re shining a spotlight on some of the many ways you can get involved:

Community Planting Days

Team up with other green fingered locals for a day of social action. Join the next Community Planting Days, led by Redbridge Council’s Neighbourhoods Team, to help boost biodiversity in the borough, learn new skills, and create attractive local neighbourhoods.

You will be given gloves and trowels, along with training on gardening basics for those new to it. No need to book, just turn-up. The next sessions are at:

• Seven Kings on Tuesday 3 June: 10am - 12pm at the planters opposite Seven Kings Station.
• Wanstead on Wednesday 4 June: 10am - 12pm at the planters outside Wanstead Station.

Litter picking

• Volunteer and help Redbridge’s park rangers tackle litter in local parks and take care of the parks through Park Action Days. Find out more: https://visionrcl.org.uk/parks-outdoor-spaces/volunteering-in-parks-and-open-spaces-2/
• The South Woodford Society hold community litter picks and all are welcome. Find out more including how to join: https://sowosoc.org/get-involved/environment-green-spaces/litter-picking/

 

Share your skills at a local Repair Cafe:

Join the ‘How to: Fix Electricals’ workshop, designed for those with some electrical knowledge who would like to start volunteering their skills at repair cafe events. The workshop is a group session with expert repairers teaching you how to mend everyday electrical items. It is completely free, but you would be required to attend a Repair Cafe event as a volunteer to help hone your skills and build confidence and experience in fixing items, under the guidance of expert repairers.

The How to: Fix Electricals workshop is on Sunday June 29, 11am-2pm at Fullwell Cross Library, 140 High Street, Ilford, IG6 2EA. Book your place on the workshop for free via: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-fix-electricals-at-fullwell-cross-library-tickets-1362736103369?aff=oddtdtcreator

Repair Cafes breathe new life into broken items, helping local people save money, as well as helping the planet.

Dilip, is one of the regular volunteer repair experts available at the Repair Cafe run by Transition Town Ilford, at Redbridge Central Library. The Redbridge local said: “Over the years we’ve repaired a huge range of things helping prolong the life of many household items.”

There’s lots of other ways to volunteer too – no matter how big, or small: 

• Find out more about general volunteering opportunities across the borough: redbridge.gov.uk/discover/volunteering-in-redbridge/
• There are volunteering opportunities within Redbridge Parks and Libraries through Vision Redbridge, Culture and Leisure. Find out more: https://visionrcl.org.uk/volunteer/
• Find out about volunteering on a regular, casual or one-off basis, for a variety of organisations with Community Action Redbridge: communityactionredbridge.org.uk/volunteering-in-redbridge
• Get involved in local community and eco projects that boost the borough’s biodiversity and help keep Redbridge looking great: redbridge.gov.uk/our-streets/

Volunteering and social action is a great way to help others by offering your time and skills to make a positive impact in your local community, and it can help you too.

Did you know some of the well documented benefits of volunteering include:

• Better physical and mental health and wellbeing
• Learning new skills
• Making new friends and widening local support networks
• Boosting your confidence
• Developing a storing sense of connection to others in the community and your local area

Meet some of our inspiring local heroes in Redbridge whose kind acts of volunteering and social action are helping make Redbridge a place we’re all proud to call home:

Jan from Clayhall

Jan, 70, from Clayhall, regularly goes litter picking in Claybury Park. Her efforts to help keep the park clean have inspired others and made her a well-known face in the local community. Jan said: “It saddened me seeing the rubbish people would leave behind in the park, so I decided to do something about it to help keep the park clean. We really are very lucky to have some truly beautiful parks and green, open spaces in Redbridge. It’s something we should all cherish. It’s important to work together as a community to look after our parks. My mantra is if you want the right to use the park, you also have to take responsibility for looking after it.”

Louise Burgess, Sustainability Lead for The South Woodford Society

The South Woodford Society consists of over 600 local households working together to help look after South Woodford. One of the community events they hold is local litter picking.

Louise said: “Litter picking is weirdly addictive! You can really make a difference in a short period of time, and it is very satisfying to see the before and after.  Children especially seem to really like litter picking and often have the most energy of any of us! Getting involved in litter picks, whatever age you are and however long or short a time you have, can really help you to feel part of the community and makes you realise how important our local area is - and that helping keep it clean really does make a difference.”

To get involved with The South Woodford Society go to: https://www.southwoodfordsociety.org/

Alvin Hardy

Alvin, 81, regularly volunteers as a repair expert at the Repair Cafes run by Transition Town Ilford, at Redbridge Central Library. The former engineer imparts his repair knowledge and skills to the community, while helping fix items for free through the Repair Café events.

Alvin said: “I have years of repair experience and love volunteering my time and skills to share that with the community so local people have the ability to carry out small, easy, repairs that could save them money.”

Over the years Alvin has helped repair all kinds of items for local people for free from kettles, toasters, and hoovers, to baby feeders, lawnmowers and even a Dansette Record Player from the fifties and a Juke Box.

Find out more about Transition Town Ilford Repair Cafes and volunteering: https://transitionilford.org.uk/