Volunteer at Cats Protection Essex Cat Centre
Without volunteers, Essex Cat Centre simply wouldn't exist. Our amazing, friendly volunteers are a diverse group with a shared love of cats who fit volunteering around their home lives and personal commitments.
We're often looking to welcome new volunteers to join our brilliant team. As well as meeting great people and making an incredible difference to the cats of Chelmsford, you'll enjoy practical benefits such as discounted pet insurance. You can find out more about volunteering for Cats Protection here.
We welcome volunteers in the following roles to support our centre:
- Cat Care
- Cleaning the living environments of cats in care
- Washing up food bowls, litter trays etc
- Grooming cats
- Enriching each cat's experience in care through play, exercise and handling
- Observing the cats for any changes in behaviour or health
- Welcome Team (also called "Meet & Greet Volunteers")
- Providing a warm and welcoming reception to all visitors
- Signposting visitors to the appropriate adoption forms
- Passing on queries and requests to other tea members as required
- Alerting staff to the arrival of appointments
- Mainly on Saturdays and Sundays, between 11am and 3pm
- Transport
- In this role, volunteers would use our vans to transport cats and equipment
- Transporting cats between centres and branches, both locally and connecting us with the Norfolk centres and UK Cat Centre in East Sussex
- Transporting equipment to and from events (locally)
- Transporting cats to and from fosterers (locally)
- Health & Safety Admin
- Assisting in supporting the centre in keeping up to date with H&S checks, such as legionella testing
- Monthly checks of emergency facilities (lighting, fire extinguishers, fire alarm)
- Monitoring paperwork and updating as required
- Full training and support for all checks and equipment required will be provided
- Fundraising
- Attending events to support on stalls
- Supporting in setting up and packing down of events
- Some events at the centre, others locally in and around Chelmsford
- Gardening
- Weeding paths and flowerbeds
- Planting
- Upkeep of green spaces at the centre
We are not currently accepting volunteer applications. Applications will open again in January 2025. Please note that we may ask for applicants to attend an in-person induction session on a weekday in March or April for the next round of applicants.
We are always happy to receive applications for fostering!
If you are keen to know more about these opportunities, please contact volunteering@chelmsford.cats.org.uk.
Veterinary EMS Placements
We do host veterinary students for the required 2-week EMS placement for university studies. If you are interested in applying for this experience, please email volunteering@chelmsford.cats.org.uk. We often receive a lot of enquiries for the summer holidays, so please get in touch to start the application process early to reserve your space.
Duke of Edinburgh
Thank you for your interest in completing your Duke of Edinburgh volunteering placement with us to support our cats.
We will host a small number of students for their Bronze DofE placements in 2025. We hope to host the first group of students for one hour a week on Saturdays or Sundays, from early January to early April (12 weeks). The second group will then run from mid April through to July.
Please note that the first group (Jan-April 2025) is now fully booked.
If you are interested in volunteering with us for your placement, please email our Volunteer Team Leader for more information: volunteering@chelmsford.cats.org.uk
Cat Care Experience for Young Volunteers 2025
We will be running the Cat Care Experience afternoons for young volunteers during the 2025 summer holidays, from Monday 18th August to Friday 29th August (excluding weekends and Wednesdays).
This will be an opportunity for young people in the local community to visit our centre for an afternoon to receive a tour of our centre, assist with a few cat care activities to support the cats in care, and also to meet a couple of cats.
This opportunity will be available as a one-off experience for each young volunteer, running from 12noon to 4pm. There is a limit on attendees per session, which will restrict the number of individuals who are able to attend the sessions across the weeks, so it will be booked on a first come first served basis. The limit on numbers is to ensure that each individual has a beneficial and meaningful experience, with direct interaction with staff and the cats. This would not be possible with larger groups.
This experience is available for individuals between the ages of 10 and 18yrs.
Applications will open around Easter 2025 - a booking form will be available at that time on Facebook and here on the website.
