Volunteering in Newcastle City Centre

A lot of what keeps Newcastle city centre kind runs on volunteer hours. Hot meals on Bath Lane, learning sessions for people rebuilding their lives after homelessness, wayfinding and ward support at the RVI, an upcycling workshop on a city farm and an entire cinema with no paid staff: all of them depend on people giving a few hours a week. If you live, work or study in the centre, here is where to start, with the organisations that are based here and how each one takes new volunteers on.

Start with the Volunteer Centre

Volunteer Centre Newcastle is the city's volunteering brokerage, delivered by the national charity Volunteering Matters and based at the Grainger Hub in Maybrook House on Grainger Street. Its website has a searchable database of opportunities across Newcastle: put in a postcode or a keyword (animals, gardening, mental health, befriending) and it returns current roles from local charities and groups. You can register as a volunteer to keep track of what you apply for, and there is a separate section of roles suitable for under-18s, which is useful if you are a sixth-former looking for Duke of Edinburgh or UCAS experience.

It also helps employers organise staff volunteering days.

Best for: Anyone who wants to volunteer but has not yet decided what kind of cause suits them.

Homelessness and food

The People's Kitchen

The People's Kitchen at the Alison Centre on Bath Lane, just inside the West End edge of the centre, has fed homeless and vulnerable people in Newcastle for around forty years, and the charity describes itself as run entirely by volunteers. Meals are served on weekday evenings and weekend mornings, which makes it one of the few options for people who work office hours. Applications go through an online form on its volunteering page, and the charity says it always needs more people who can give a few hours a week.

Best for: Hands-on volunteers who want an evening or weekend-morning shift serving food.

Crisis Skylight Newcastle

Crisis Skylight Newcastle at City House on City Road, a short walk from the Quayside, is the national homelessness charity's local centre. It offers one-to-one support with housing, health and work, plus a programme of learning such as art, cooking and woodwork. Volunteer roles cover working directly alongside members, supporting the office team and helping with arts sessions, and the volunteering team will keep your details on file if nothing suits at the time you ask.

Each December Crisis at Christmas runs in Newcastle too, with seasonal roles including drivers collecting donations and delivering hampers, health and wellbeing volunteers, and qualified professionals such as hairdressers. Roles are booked through the Crisis website, with an induction before your first shift.

Best for: People who want to support learning and recovery over the longer term, or give time over Christmas.

Newcastle Foodbank

The city's food bank is not in the city centre itself: Newcastle Foodbank is based at the Foodbank Centre on Benwell Lane, with hubs in churches and community buildings across the west and east of the city. It is included here because it is one of the most common things people searching for volunteering in Newcastle want to do. Roles include distributing food parcels, warehouse work and helping at Pantry sessions. Volunteering is weekdays only, and the food bank asks individual volunteers to apply through its vacancies page; businesses can book Thursday team days.

Best for: Weekday volunteers who can travel a couple of miles west of the centre.

Hospitals

The Royal Victoria Infirmary sits on the northern edge of the centre beside Leazes Park, and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recruits volunteers there and at the Freeman, the Great North Children's Hospital and the Northern Centre for Cancer Care. Current roles are listed through the Newcastle Hospitals Charity. This is a bigger commitment than most: the trust asks for at least one fixed four-hour shift a week for six months, two references from people who have known you for three years or more, NHS standard checks and an online occupational health assessment. Most roles are for over-18s, with some open to over-16s with parental consent, and the trust says the process takes between one and six weeks.

Best for: Reliable weekly volunteers who want to make a real difference to patients and visitors.

Farm, cinema and heritage

Ouseburn Farm

Ouseburn Farm, the free-to-enter city farm in the Ouseburn Valley, says 377 people volunteered there in 2024. Alongside the animals it runs term-time placements for adults with learning disabilities, learning difficulties and autistic adults, and it recruits Placement Support Volunteers to help run small-group sessions in its upcycling shop, crafts and art workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday daytimes. Contact the farm directly about current openings.

Best for: Patient, creative people with a free weekday morning or afternoon.

Star and Shadow Cinema

Star and Shadow on Warwick Street, just east of the centre, is a co-operative cinema, music venue and community space run by its volunteers. You can help in the cafe, at screenings and gigs, or with programming: there is an open programming meeting on the second Monday of each month for anyone who wants to put on a film or event, and regular inductions for new volunteers.

Best for: Film and music fans who want a say in what gets shown.

Museums

North East Museums, which runs the Discovery Museum on Blandford Square along with the Laing and the Great North Museum, advertises volunteer roles through an online portal and runs work experience weeks for Key Stage 4 and 5 students. At the time of writing its open roles are mostly at the Stephenson Steam Railway in North Tyneside rather than the city-centre venues, so check the list before you apply. Our guide to museums in Newcastle city centre covers the venues themselves.

Best for: Students after work experience, and heritage fans happy to travel to the railway.

Tips before you sign up

Be realistic about time: a shift you can keep every week is worth more to a charity than an ambitious offer you drop after a month. Expect a short application, references for some roles and a DBS check where you will work with children or vulnerable adults. If you would rather give time without a fixed rota, the charity shops in the centre always need sorters and counter staff, and our guide to charity shops in Newcastle city centre shows where they cluster.

Know a city-centre charity or group looking for volunteers? Tell us through our contact page.