how refreshing to read of your experiences within the volunteer services, I too have time on my hands after being bereaved of my husband, it's soul destoying, I feel but we cannot give up as you have proved.
I have many times applied to volunteer but I have found that the checks on an individual takes so long to complete, I simply do not understand the delays as there is so much help needed in many ways.
Although I am 'past my sell by date' gratefully I am healthy and mobile, would love to be involved.

I work in a local charity shop and enjoy the company. It supports a childrens hospice and the customers enter into the spirit of this and are very friendly.

Have you tried visiting your local charity shops ladybird to see if there is one where you might 'fit in'?

Every county has a volunteers website. Usually on the county council website. This is full of adverts for volunteers. I started volunteering for a local heritage group that way - and no CRB or other checks were necessary.

For me volunteering is a way of life, not something I consciously began. My parents and grandparents, both, were active in working in the community through their church and it never occurred to me not to offer to help when an activity I was involved in needed help. Currently I am actively involved in four different groups and for 10 years I volunteered with Age Concern as a Home Visitor

I have done various voluntary roles at different times in my life. The first was part of a school based scheme when we could do 'community service' or sports. I chose CS and visited an elderly gentleman , did shopping for him or prepared his tea and just chatted. He was in his mid-80s then and had been in a young soldier the Boer war. He still had a very musty tin of chocolate sent to the troops by Queen Victoria.

When the kids were small & I was not working I helped out at a junior youth club in the evenings run by the Family Service Unit and I also did shopping for a woman who was disabled (via a local volunteer charity). I also did some stuff that would now be called Home Start /Sure Start but don't think it had a name then.

Once I was working f/t again it was harder to find space for volunteering plus kids though I was a parent governor (with Theresa May no less!) at my daughters' school.

Now I am part retired I have time to be a school governor again and am involved in two local charity and action groups.

I do the volunteering because I enjoy it. I have met lovely people and made some great friends too.

I have done voluntary jobs since I married DH. I volunteered because, as it wasn't a 'proper' job, I could drop things if the children needed me - of course it doesn't work like that!

My roles included pushing a book trolley round a hospital, PTA, looking after neighbours and an ad hoc sort of Sure Start. For the past 13 years I worked for Victim Support as a volunteer for Witness Service at our local court. Unfortunately, all that changed when VS had to tender for various contracts and there became quite a nasty atmosphere, the volunteers ceased to be important and 4 of us decided to leave. My main role was helping victims of DV to give their evidence and I have since found a slightly similar role for which training begins next week. I'm really excited.

I volunteer because I believe that, if you can, you should but also, as a non-working mother/grandmother, it is my contribution to society and very important in giving me an insight into the lives of other people.