Whitechapel Mission - homeless shelter in London, offering free food, showers, clothing and advice

Volunteers Today

We welcome volunteers from:

Mercy & Friends
for a Breakfast Challenge

Please show me: (toggle the green tick on/off)

Understanding our diary

Names with a solid background indicates a confirmed volunteering date. The different types of volunteering are shown above in the filter.

Any event prefixed with an asterix (*), and with a striped background are a provisional event.

Next Available Breakfast Challenges

07
JAN 10
JAN 27
JAN 03
FEB 13
FEB 19
FEB

Next Available Clothing Challenges

25
FEB 27
FEB 28
FEB 21
APR 22
APR

Frequently Asked Questions

We do not charge for volunteering at the Whitechapel Mission. We wish to encourage volunteering as a concept and especially at the Mission. This means that our volunteering programme is very popular and we must always leave room for our long-term supporters. Priority over our diary will always go to our Priority Partners.

How do I use the diary filters?

On the "Please show Me" box, you can switch on and off, the diary filters. The default is to show only Breakfast Challenges. Other types of volunteerting can be switched on by clicking on the red/green buttons.

Why can't I book a Clothing Challenge when there isn't one booked?

Clothing challenges and Gift-sorting challenges are controlled by the amount of donations that we receive. We are currently limiting the clothing challenges to 2 a week. We would hate to accept a request to volunteer, and then be forced to cancel because we have nothing for your team to sort. If there are opportunites where we can increase the number of dates available, or if there are cancellations, we will open the diary to more opportunities.

Why can't I book a Breakfast Challenge more than 4 months in advance?

We have to give our priority partners first chance at the diary and only those organizations can book that far a head. Our experience also shows that bookings made more than 4 month inadvance get cancelled more often than not.

Why are some names in red?

These companies are members of our 5000Club and recognized as Priority Partners

Are we limited to how many dates we can book each month?

Due to the popularity of our Volunteering programme, we can only offer one of each challenge in a given month.

Why do some dates have a striped background?

These dates have been requested by a group but not yet confirmed by staff of the Mission. We will always attempt to confirm at least 1 month (usually 6 weeks) in advance. These dates are "provisionally booked". Striped backgounds are awaiting confirmation!

Can we still request dates that have a striped backgound?

This is possible, but you are only likely to get the date, if the first request is not confirmed or the compant decide to pull out.

We would like to request a number of dates over the next 12 months. Is this possible?

This is usually reserved for our priority partners only

We have requested a date, but not been contacted yet?

This usually only happens when you book a long way in advance and we are not able to confirm yet. We will be in touch. If there is less than 6 weeks to go, it is always worth an email to [email protected]

We have requested a date, but now need to cancel?

Of course, there may always be very good reasons which may force you to cancel, but we do need a high level of commitment once the date has been agreed by both parties. Cancelling with months of notice isn't a problem at all. Failing to show or canceling at short notice is likely to result in us not being able to accept another request to volunteer.