LHA Volunteer Agreement
Thank you for indicating that you would like to become a volunteer at LHA London Ltd (LHA). We are enthusiastic about the potential contributions you will bring to our organisation!
The purpose of this letter is to set out our mutual hopes and expectations in relation to the services that you are going to provide on a voluntary basis.
We understand that we cannot require you to provide services, nor can you require us to provide you with work, and we both agree that there is no intention between us to create any legal relations in respect of your volunteering activities.
Accommodation
As a volunteer, you will be offered accommodation at one of the LHA hostels. This is to enable you to better carry out your volunteering. Please note your accommodation may not necessarily be situated at the house where you are volunteering.
You will be responsible for maintaining the cleanliness and condition of the provided accommodation. You will be asked to acknowledge and sign the licence agreement with LHA regarding the provision of accommodation.
Attendance
Although there is no obligation on a volunteer to do so, we recommend that our volunteers dedicate a minimum of 20 hours per week to maximize and enrich the volunteering experience with us. For the same reasons we usually hope that our volunteers will volunteer with us for a minimum period of 6 weeks (30 days). In order for us to be able to extend volunteering opportunities to a wide group of volunteers, the maximum term for volunteering at LHA is 2 years, but if you would like to give us more of your time, this could also be discussed with the Volunteer Lead subject to availability. If you need to take a break from volunteering for any reason (e.g., sickness, personal commitments), we would like to ask you to give us as much notice as possible. If the break from volunteering extends beyond our ability to hold open the volunteering opportunity, it may result in the end of your volunteering agreement. Separately, we can discuss the possibility of resident status if that is something which is of interest, subject to availability and mutual agreement.
Should you decide to discontinue volunteering, we ask you to give us as much notice as possible.
Ownership of Intellectual Property
By volunteering with us you agree that any intellectual property created during your activities at LHA London belongs to LHA. Similarly, you agree to assign all the rights of those to us and help us protect those rights if needed. No intellectual property creation should be shared without LHA’s prior permission.
Data Protection and Privacy
LHA will protect and store all your provided personal data according to data protection laws and GDPR practices. The data will be used only for volunteering purposes and not shared without consent, unless required by law. After your volunteering has ceased, no data will be kept for longer than necessary and you can access, correct or request for it to be deleted it by contacting our Volunteer Lead at volunteers@lhalondon.com.
Presentation and Personal Hygiene
When volunteering, you are expected to present yourself in a clean and tidy manner and maintain good personal hygiene. Since you represent the image of LHA, it is essential that you always reflect our standards in values and appearance. You will be issued a uniform, which you must wear at all times during your volunteer hours. This is to ensure that you are easily identifiable as being associated with LHA while volunteering, for the safety and security of our residents. You are responsible for the uniform's upkeep and ensuring its return before departure.
Social Media and Representation
We require you to represent yourself and implicitly LHA with mindfulness and respect when engaging with social media or other public platforms. That includes but is not limited to participation in discussion, posting or sharing content that could harm LHA’s reputation or that goes against its core values and mission.
Our volunteers are welcome to include their LHA experience in CVs or other professional platforms. However, this should be listed as a “Volunteering Role” and not associated at any time with “Volunteer work” or “Employment”. The distinction is essential for ensuring and maintaining transparency about the nature of your contribution. If you need further clarification, please consult with the Volunteer Lead or a member of our HR team.
Capturing Volunteer Highlights
From time to time, we host volunteer gatherings where photos or short videos may be taken to help promote and grow our charity through social media and other public platforms. If you attend these events, you may appear in such images. Our staff will do their best to check on the day whether you are comfortable being included in any photos or recordings. If you would prefer not to be photographed or filmed, please let a staff member know. As we regularly welcome new volunteers, we kindly ask that you remind staff of your preference whenever photos are being taken, in line with our consent form.
Confidentiality
It is of crucial importance that you appreciate that information concerning hostel customers and the hostel team must remain confidential. If you believe that there is a breach of confidentiality, you are asked to let your House Manager know as soon as possible. In order to ensure this confidentiality, it is important that volunteers maintain professional boundaries between themselves and the hostel customers. Audio or visual recordings of others in the hostel without their permission are strictly prohibited.
Volunteer Role Description
Once arrived at the property you will be provided with a breakdown of the specific duties that can be undertaken by volunteers so that you will be able to fully understand the volunteering tasks and how you contribute to our mission.
Support and Training
LHA hopes to provide you with sufficient support and guidance to enable you to maximise your voluntary contribution. It is important that you let your House Manager, or the Volunteer Lead know if you feel that support is insufficient.
We will regularly check in with our volunteers to make sure that everything is going well, and to identify whether there are any training needs. Please note that some training, e.g., Fire Awareness, is compulsory since it is essential to your health and safety.
If you have any questions about your volunteer role please contact in the first instance your House Manager, alternatively you can email our Volunteer Lead at volunteers@lhalondon.com.
If your contribution, behaviour, or attitude is not of a standard that is acceptable to the organisation, the House Manager will raise this with you. However, if there is no improvement then we will thank you for the contribution that you have made but cease to request that you provide any more volunteering services. There is no disciplinary or capability procedure that applies to you.
Relationships with Fellow Volunteers, LHA Staff and Residents
As a vital component of maximising your contribution, we encourage you to interact and foster positive relationships with our staff, fellow volunteers and residents. Should you ever encounter concerns or discomfort regarding the behaviour of a volunteer, staff member or resident, we kindly request that you bring it to the attention of the House Manager or Volunteer Lead.
The aim of the organisation is to create an environment where people feel able to express their views and problems and where they can be openly discussed. There is no formal grievance procedure that is available to you however if you are not happy with the outcome, you can refer the matter to the Volunteer Lead to be reviewed.
Equal Opportunities and Health and Safety
There are a number of policies that apply to organisation’s employees. No such policies apply to you, but we would expect you, at all times, to take care to treat everyone equally and ensure that the health and safety of all people are respected and preserved.
Expenses
Our policy is that you will only ever be reimbursed in respect of expenses that you have actually incurred, and only to the extent that you are ‘out of pocket’.