Supportive Volunteering provides the option for individuals with diverse support needs to volunteer at WindReach with individualised support in place. WindReach staff will provide training and modelling of volunteer tasks around the property, visual schedules, visual aids and point of contacts for further support. Our Supportive Volunteering offers the opportunity for individuals to gain training for an hour each week within either Animal Care or Horticulture tasks, followed by 2 hours of independent volunteer tasks around the WindReach site. Our Supported Volunteers can then opt to stay and have their lunch onsite from 12.30 – 1.30 and socialise or leave the site at 12.30.

Our aim with Supportive Volunteering is to provide the opportunity for individuals with diverse support needs to give back to the community, gain new skills and develop current skills that can be transferred to potential employment, hobbies or accessing the community.

Animal Care:

The Animal Care option focuses on developing knowledge, skills, experience and confidence around our WindReach animals. Participants will explore how to appropriately and safely behave around our animals, the behaviors of animals to be aware of when socializing/interacting with them and the basic needs of our animals.

Participants will explore the following activities;

  • Socializing & Interacting with the animals
  • Feeding the animals (ie. The amount to feed each animal, what each animal eats and why)
  • Mucking out the animal enclosures
  • Grooming the animals

Horticulture:
The Horticulture option focuses on developing knowledge, skills and experience working in the Outdoor Natural Environment.  The participants will take part in wide range of activities that are required to maintain the 9 acre WindReach Property Landscape that includes lawns, hedge rows, pathways, pastures, garden beds (food and ornamental), fruit orchards and a woodland reserve.  Participants will be engaged at their level of ability to learn the safe and appropriate use of the tools used in horticulture to complete the daily WindReach property landscape maintenance asks.  Participants will explore and learn the knowledge, skills and tools necessary for maintaining:

  • Garden beds and fruit orchards (i.e. soil preparation, planting, weed and pest management, plant ID and harvesting),
  • Lawns (i.e. mowing, trimming, fertilizing, weeding, plant ID and edging),
  • Nature trails (i.e. tree line trimming, maintenance of pathways, mulching for erosion prevention, and plant ID);
  • Pastures (fertilizing, weeding, plant ID and manure management)
  • Organic waste management (i.e. composting horticulture debris and animal waste collected around the property). 

Special attention will be given to the Health and Safety of the individual, group and work environment, and the proper PPE will be taught and practiced with every activity.

The health and care of our Natural Environment and the organisms that we share it with is of high importance to us so all of our horticulture maintenance practices are non-toxic and eco- friendly.

Please contact Kate Terceira at executivedirector@windreach.bm