Volunteers
Pilsdon at Malling welcomes two types of volunteers - residential and non-residential volunteers. Some people offer their lives full-time to the community, while others wish to offer a day or two each week in order to add their skills to our vibrant community life. In particular, we look for people who would be willing to spend time in the office doing administrative tasks, including filing and answering the telephone.
Our Volunteers, from many countries, have found Pilsdon a friendly working community and have given and received a lot during their stay. They have particularly enjoyed the fact that we operate as a large, extended family where we all muck in with tasks that have to be done.
If you join us as a residential volunteer, you will stay for six months or so; you will contribute to working with the animals, in the garden, the kitchen and with the maintenance of the house and its surrounding grounds. You will, of course, bring your own skills, but you will also learn new skills from others: there is always someone more than willing to show you what to do. It is a desirable that you have a current driving licence because there are quite a few occasions when you may be asked to take guests to appointments locally. We try to offer opportunities for you to try most things here, which certainly makes for an interesting and varied life.
For residential volunteers, accommodation is on site in a single room, and all board is included, so your needs should be few. You have access to all community facilities and we hope that all volunteers share fully in the life and activities of the community.
We all work and play for long hours, so your weekly day off and the occasional free weekend will be much appreciated. If you come from outside the UK we will try to enable you to visit some cities e.g. Bristol, Salisbury, and London. If you are travelling from a developing country with wage rates below that of Western Europe, we will try to help with transport costs.
If you like the sound of the kind of life we lead, please write back with some information about yourself and any skills that you particularly could offer, along with some idea of when and how long you might like to stay. It would be helpful if you could send a reference, a letter from your doctor and your CV at the same time. If you are coming from the UK please be prepared to come for a trial week to see whether Pilsdon is the right place for you. Please send us your details and keep in touch.
