Brighten the Festive Season: Brisbane Christmas Volunteering Guide
Make someone’s Christmas a little brighter by volunteering this Christmas in Brisbane.
Whilst the Christmas season is a happy time for many lucky Queenslanders, many among us do it tough or need a helping hand. It’s more important than ever to realise how easy it can be to fall on hard times, and we have the opportunity to make this season a little bit easier on those less fortunate.
If you have some time to spare over the Christmas holidays and you’d like to give back, we’ve found a few ways you can get involved.
Basket Brigade
The Brisbane Basket Brigade is a non-profit organisation that provides food and gifts for those who are doing it tough over Christmas; the elderly, children and hungry and houseless folk.
You can get involved by signing up for a community packing day or delivery day, where Brisbane volunteers rally to pack, wrap and prepare baskets for those in need all around the city. You can even suggest it to your workplace, as a socially responsible way to spend one of your last days in the office at a corporate packing day event.
Foster An Animal
During the holiday downtime, why not bring a little friend home for Christmas? If you can’t commit to adopting a new pet, you can make sure one gets to spend their Christmas in a comfy home, rather than the shelter.
You can foster pets of all sizes, and in some cases, all you need is a spare room (for a cat or kittens) or a small yard with plenty of walkies opportunities for a dog.
Most rescues and shelters supply everything you need to look after your temporary roomie, so make a difference this Christmas by fostering a shelter pet.
Here are some local animal rescues you can find more information from:
Volunteer at AWLQ
If you have a couple of hours to spare over Christmas, why not volunteer at the Animal Welfare League? The AWLQ relies on volunteers to help them continue their vital work rescuing and rehoming cats, dogs, farm animals, reptiles and birds–and it’s easy to get involved!
You can volunteer as much (or as little) time as you have available, and you can assist in a myriad of ways. You can spend a morning or afternoon at the shelter tidying kennels, walking dogs, playing with kitties and cleaning their enclosures. Or you can even offer your assistance in sorting donations or transporting pets between facilities.
On Christmas Day, you can make sure the animals still feel the love, by popping in for a short shift to make sure they receive their daily dose of attention and affection.
Multiple locations
Salvos
More than just your local op shop, the Salvation Army (or Salvos) provides support to the disadvantaged in a variety of ways. Throughout the year you can support their work by working in a retail shop, participating in the Drive For Life program (teaching kids with barriers to education and training how to drive) or emergency services–or you can step up at Christmas time when it’s needed.
In the lead-up to Christmas, a variety of support roles are advertised with the Salvos so that you can add a little joy to someone’s day, so check back on their volunteer listings to see how you can get involved.
Orange Sky
Orange Sky provide essential health and hygiene services to those experiencing hardship or houselessness, by connecting folk with a laundry and showering service. By volunteering with Orange Sky at Christmastime (or year-round), you’re directly improving someone’s quality of life.
There’s a variety of ways to get involved starting from just two hours per fortnight, so check out the open roles and find a way to help out with some Christmas volunteering in Brisbane this year.
Lifeline
Lifeline have long been providing support to Aussies in need with year-round crisis support, and Christmas time can be a busy time for volunteers, with more people facing complicated situations and emotions.
To volunteer for the Crisis Line, you just need to pass selection criteria before going through the nationally recognised Lifeline Crisis Support Training Program, which will prepare you to provide support to callers.
If the Crisis Line isn’t for you, you can also lend a hand by assisting the op shop retails stores with sorting, categorising, pricing, customer service or working in the warehouse.
Various locations.
Now that you’re across the Christmas volunteering in Brisbane opportunities, find more ways to spend your seasonal downtime with our guide to Christmas activities in Brisbane. You can find more charities to assist in our guide to eleven women’s charities that need support.
