Diamond is like a Family

‘Like many others who walked through Diamonds front door, it’s become a second home’

Most of our instructors are volunteers. There is a full time table of over 60 riding, vaulting and driving sessions, which start on Tuesday mornings and go through to late Saturday afternoons.

Thursday evenings are left free for training. The horses are put out to grass from Saturday night until Monday morning, when they are ridden back from our grazing fields and prepared for lessons the following day.

Many of our volunteers start with no previous experience of horses or the disabled and come from all walks of life. Some help at The Diamond Centre for a couple of hours each week and some for a couple of days.

Our junior helpers start at aged 13 and work alternate Saturdays on a rota basis after they have completed the basic training.

The benefits of volunteering at The Diamond Centre

‘My happiest, most fulfilling times of the week. Great to have the feeling that what I do is being useful and is appreciated’

Everyday at Diamond we see the value of our volunteers and we just could not do what we do without them.

We are always looking for new volunteers to lead our horses and ponies in riding lessons – or for grooming, mucking out and generally helping out around the stables. You don’t need any previous experience of horses as we will train you.

We also need people with other skills to help maintain the Centre and gardens or work in the severy and anyone with specialised skills in marketing or fundraising experience are very welcome. We also welcome corporate groups to help us with short term projects.

Whatever you want to do, you’ll be part of a friendly, committed group where you can

• make new friends,
• learn new skills
• be part of a team
• enjoy the outdoors (and keep fit!)

and have the satisfaction that you are giving your time to make a difference to other people’s lives while at the same time making a difference to your own.

‘I can honestly say it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. I volunteered at Diamond thinking I’d be helping, but I get so much out of this I wish I’d volunteered years ago.’

For those that volunteer with us regularly, we run volunteer lessons towards fundraising. Please contact us for more details! 

If you would like to become a volunteer at Diamond please call us on 020 8643 7764 or click here to contact us

Queens Award for Voluntary Service

In 2000 we won the Sport England Volunteer Investment Programme Award – an award for excellence in training, organising, and retaining volunteers and in 2009 we were given The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. 

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award given to local volunteer groups across the UK to recognise outstanding work done in their own communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate the anniversary of The Queen’s coronation. It is the MBE for volunteer groups.

Any group doing volunteer work that provides a social, economic or environmental service to the local community can be nominated for the award. Each group is assessed on the benefit it brings to the local community and its standing within that community.

For more infomation please access: https://qavs.culture.gov.uk/