Be A Volunteer
Volunteering at The Arcturus Clinic is a CIC – a Community Interest Company.
For more info on CIC’s, see the following website: http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/
A CIC is a limited company which serves the community or a section of the community, and is a not-for-profit organisation in that any profits it does make are channeled back into the business for the good of the community.
Being a CIC enables us to apply for funding from grant-making trusts, as well as from private individuals. It enables us to have volunteers to help with the day to day running of the clinic, and potentially would enable us to expand the services we offer, and to provide low cost and free healthcare services to the community. It would also give us more potential opportunities for marketing.
The Arcturus Clinic c.i.c. will have a panel of Directors, and a group of Members consisting of existing practitioners, or other members of the local community who want to donate some of their time and energy to helping run the clinic, or to working on one of its community projects. This could take the form of donation sessions, running a group, administrative work, fundraising, or other tasks. Membership of the CIC would be by the invitation of the Directors.
As a separate venture, the Clinic will continue to rent out rooms and offer complementray health services to practitioners who want to continue working here on either an Ad-hoc or Contract basis as before, but do not want to get involved with running the CIC or its projects.
The Clinic will host the Sustainable health retreats which will provide a range of holistic healthcare to people suffering from chronic disease at normal, low or in some cases no cost. We hope to offer a complete range of therapies, eg Nutritional advice, Acupuncture, Counselling, Homeopathy, Chinese Herbal Medicine, reflexology, therapeutic massage, meditation and Energy Healing.
The Totnes Sustainable Health Centre will also offer free Sustainable Health Support Groups , a free Carers Support Group for carers of people with life-threatening diseases and a Bereavement Support Group.
The Centre will offer weekend retreats where sufferers can experience a whole range of therapies, lectures on nutritional and lifestyle advice, training in relaxation and meditation techniques and the support of trained professionals as well as networking with other people in the same situation. For this we could team up with a local organic B&B to provide the accommodation.
As the Totnes Sustainable Health Centre we hope to affiliate with the Bristol Centre, and to match the services they offer.
- Outreach work for the homeless
The Clinic will provide outreach healthcare for homeless people at the Revival Life Ministries, a local hostel.
We will also offer some of our other treatments and services at the Methodist Church Community Centre, and in people’s own homes, as disabled access to the Clinic is limited.
- “Health Without Wealth” Fund
The Clinic will hold a “Health Without Wealth Fund” to which local people on low income can apply for healthcare support, and if successful will receive a course of subsidised treatments from our Member therapists. Again we aim to provide a full range of treatments.
If people are interested in becoming a Member of the CIC, these are the requirements the Directors will be looking for.
Members of the CIC would be asked to give 2 hours of their time per week on a voluntary basis. This could involve offering donation sessions to clients (where the client would pay between £12 and £20, and the therapist would receive £6 of this to cover expenses. The remainder would go to the clinic.)
It could also involve giving some time to cover reception on a Wednesday or Thursday, or some other area of expertise which you might have eg web design, researching for our new cancer website, writing articles, search engine optimisation, sourcing funding for the CIC etc. This list is by no means exhaustive as we will have many jobs which need doing. Volunteers will have their travel expenses paid (for public transport upon receipt of valid ticket, or petrol expenses @ 40p per mile.)
As Directors we will do all that we can to secure funding for the CIC, and once funding is secured to make sure that benefits from grant funded work is spread evenly amongst Members. HOWEVER, we cannot guarantee that all members will be able to receive benefits from this as it will be dependent upon the type and amount of funding, whether we secure funding at all, and factors such as what treatments are in demand from our service users. Therefore we have to say that at this stage, Members should consider the hours they donate to the clinic as being voluntary work, for which they may or may not receive something in return.
If people would like to donate some of their time in this way and become a Member of the CIC, we would like to invite them to attend an interview with the Directors, so they can tell us about what you can offer the CIC in terms of skills, and time etc.
Practitioners can carry on running your therapeutic practise at the clinic as before, by renting out rooms on an Ad-Hoc or Contract basis, and can continue to do so without becoming involved in the CIC and the voluntary and community work that it will be undertaking in the future.
We will however encourage and support people to become members of the C.I.C and the TSHC as we believe this is the best way to supporting our community and the health of it’s members.
The Clinic depends heavily on volunteers from the local community for its survival and running and would not be able to expand its services in the way in which it is if it were not for the valuable input from our volunteers.
We are still in much need of volunteer support so if you value the emergence of the Sustainable Health clinic and wish to see an expansion of complementary health services in your community and have some free time and energy, then we would love to hear from you.
Computer literacy is vital, as is a sympathetic attitude essential and a willingness to work as part of a team imperative. So, if you have these qualities then please do get in touch, as we have a long list of things that could and need and ought to be done.
- Reception cover
- Administration duties
- Funding applications
- Website input and maintenance
- Contacts / database expansion
- Marketing and advertising
- Cleaning
The evolution of health care in our community is vital to provide an integrated holistic system of medicine that honours and values the innate healing potential that rests within each of us.
Here at the Arcturus clinic Community Interest Company we have an unprecedented opportunity to develop our health services in a substantially evolved way, but this is dependent on the good will of volunteers the community that we are aiming to serve.
So please do volunteer if you can, we really need your help and together we can make all the difference.
Please call the clinic on 01803 868282.
Many thanks
Steve
