Lunch club coordinator role specific training
Training 1: an introduction to your role (4 minute read)
Thank you for giving your time to be a lunch club coordinator with Re-engage. Your contribution is vital in ensuring that our older people can attend regular lunch clubs and we are grateful for your support.
How does the lunch club work?
Once a week, on a Wednesday, older people are either collected by the lunch club minibus or make their own way to the lunch club venue - The United Free Church, Crosby Rd N, Waterloo, Liverpool L22 0LQ - where they join the rest of the lunch club and share a meal and companionship.
The older people who attend lunch clubs, are served a meal, and use their time together to chat and to get to know each other. Your role as a lunch club coordinator is to run a safe and fun lunch club where older people feel welcomed and listened to.
Each lunch club will consist of a lunch club coordinator, lunch club volunteers, minibus drivers, and older people.
Your role as a lunch club coordinator is to take it in turns with the other lunch club coordinators to organise the weekly lunch club, to be the main point of contact for all the volunteers and older people in the lunch club, and to keep Re-engage informed of how everything is going.
Good to know
Older people come from all backgrounds and walks of life and so do our volunteers. We are an inclusive organisation and will consider every older person application we receive, even if it doesn’t quite meet our criteria. As a general rule however, older people are:
- Aged 65 and over.
- Lonely, isolated or in need of companionship.
Volunteer roles and responsibilities
Re-engage only has one lunch club and approximately 26 older people attend it each week. However, the lunch club can vary in size depending on how many older people are able to attend.
Re-engage has a small team of lunch club coordinators who keep the lunch clubs running smoothly by using a rota. Most lunch club coordinators volunteer for six hours each month (broken down into four hours on the day of the lunch club and roughly two hours on admin).
When it’s your turn to coordinate the lunch club you’ll:
- Welcome new volunteers and older people.
- Plan, and schedule weekly lunch clubs alongside the other lunch club coordinators.
- Respond to any issues and queries from volunteers and older people in the lunch club.
- Follow all guidance in your lunch club coordinator training to ensure that the lunch clubs are enjoyable, appropriate, and in line with our charitable aims.
- Report any safeguarding issues that may arise or have been bought to your attention to the Re-engage safeguarding point of contact.
- Organise the lunch club ensuring that lunch club volunteers have all the information they need to volunteer safely.
- Remain in regular contact with the team at Re-engage.
Lunch club volunteers:
- Generally, volunteer once or twice a month on a rota basis.
- Set up the tables at each lunch club.
- Collect the money from the older people at each lunch club.
- Serve food and drinks to the older people in the lunch club.
- Clean up and tidy after each lunch club.
Minibus drivers:
- Generally, volunteer once or twice a month on a rota basis.
- Collect older people from their home and drive them to and from the lunch club.
Why your role is so important
As a lunch club coordinator, you’re absolutely central to ensuring that the weekly lunch clubs can go ahead and that everyone involved is safe and happy. Lunch club coordinators are valued volunteer leaders within Re-engage, and we simply couldn’t run lunch clubs without you.
Your role includes:
1. Planning – as a lunch club coordinator, you’ll be putting together the lunch club rota with the other lunch club coordinators and finalising the arrangements for each weekly lunch club that you’re coordinating including choosing the meals and placing the orders with the caterers.
Training 2: Planning the lunch clubs will give you all the help and guidance you need to get your lunch club organised.
2. Communicating – you’ll be the main point of contact for all the older people and volunteers in the lunch club, and you’ll also be the link between the lunch club and Re-engage. Clear communication is key. By keeping everyone in the loop you’ll ensure that the lunch clubs are safe, enjoyable, and well-organised.
Training 3: Welcoming new people into lunch clubs and Training 4: Reporting to Re-engage and responding to issues contain information and guidance on communicating effectively, both with the Re-engage and with the volunteers and older people in the lunch club.
3. Problem solving – if the volunteers or older people in the lunch club have any questions or concerns, you’ll be their first point of contact. Many of their questions will be covered off in our online FAQs and for all information regarding GDPR and safeguarding please see our core training pages.
4. Raising awareness – as a Re-engage volunteer leader, there’s so much that you can do to spread the word about our charity in your local area and you’ll learn about it in this module.
Important
If during a chat an older person or another volunteer tells you something that concerns, you (for example something that makes you worry that they might be at risk of harm) please follow the Re-engage safeguarding adults at risk policy and report the concern to Re-engage.
It’s important that you don’t promise to keep anything that an older person or another volunteer tells you a secret or to ‘fix’ any problems that the person may be facing.
Your role is to report your concerns as soon as possible to Re-engage.