Christmas For CAMHS is a small registered charity that sends gifts to children and young people who are in mental health hospitals (CAMHS = child and adolescent mental health services) around the UK at Christmas time. We are funded by donations. We buy gifts in bulk and pack around 100 parcels of gifts, for around 1400 children, in one weekend. We need volunteers to help with our packing!

Gift packing will take place on Saturday 30th November and Sunday 1st December in a central/North Bath location - we will email you the exact details. It is the same venue as last year. There is some limited parking available (more on Saturday than Sunday) and it's about 20 minutes' walk from the train and bus stations (or 1 min walk from the nearest bus stop). The venue is a church hall, but we are not a religious organisation or affiliated to the church; we welcome volunteers of any faith or no faith.

You can sign up for one or more shift - each shift is around 3 hours long.

Volunteer tasks will include picking the gifts, checking and sorting, restocking tables, parcel checking, assembling decorating/activity kits, sticking on labels, counting stock, taking photos, setting up and tidying away etc. We may also need you to make some paper chain strips and to write messages in homemade cards, or to help pack decorations people buy in exchange for a donation. We also have lots of administrative tasks on a computer (or phone) if you'd like to help with this while others are doing practical tasks, like sending emails from our volunteer email account to addresses from a spreadsheet - we would love to have help with these.

Please note that anyone under 16 will need to be accompanied by a responsible adult for the duration of the volunteering.

We will provide snacks and drinks (yum!). If you're volunteering for a whole day, please bring a packed lunch. Please bring yourselves, comfortable shoes, and anything else you need for the day. Christmas jumpers, Santa hats etc are encouraged!

The venue is accessible for wheelchair users. Please let us know your access requirements in advance so that we can be sure to meet them.

Covid safety: We will have hand sanitiser for regular use. You are welcome to wear a mask if you would like to. Please don't attend if you are unwell with a cough, fever, respiratory symptoms - just let us know if you can't make it on the day.

If you would like to help with online volunteering (social media, PR and contacting media, contacting companies for corporate donations...) outside of the packing weekend, please email us. Thank you!