1. Have a life-changing experience: become a full time volunteer with CSV in 2004. You can work alongside adults with learning disabilities, work at a homeless hostel, or help young school children with their reading. Placements between four months or a whole year. Call 0800 374 991 or email volunteer@csv.org.uk
2. If you only want to volunteer for a few hours on a weekend, CSV's GO activities are for you. With spring just around the corner, activities range from planting new trees and bulbs on reclaimed wasteland to giving a primary school playground a new year makeover. GO volunteering is for busy people with busy lives who love to roll up their sleeves on the weekend and get their hands dirty. Call 020 7643 1341 or see here.
3. Six million discarded Christmas trees help make up the estimated three million tonne festive waste mountain created each year. More than 250 councils are offering Christmas tree recycling facilities this year, as part of a scheme coordinated by Environmental Campaigns (ENCAMS), the national charity working for the improvement of local environments. For more details on how you can recycle your festive waste, call 020 7238 1133 or see here.
4. If you are interested in helping to conserve the English countryside or to preserve some of Britain's most historic buildings, volunteer with the National Trust, for opportunities ranging from outdoor conservation work to teaching schoolchildren about heritage and the environment. Call 0870 6095583, Email: enquiries@thenationaltrust.org.uk or see here.
5. Christmas and the New Year can be a hungry time for UK's homeless population, but the homeless charity Crisis runs a food redistribution scheme. You can help collect high quality surplus fresh food from supermarkets and sandwich bars and deliver it to day centres and night shelters for homeless people. The scheme provides over 20,000 meals a week. Contact Crisis on 0870 011 3335 or email enquiries@crisis.org.uk.
6. If you live in Birmingham and are feeling guilty about all those mince pies and chocolates you ate over Christmas, why not get into shape with CSV's Healthy Walks initiative, and volunteer to become a Walk Leader. There are five walks a week, helping people at risk of coronary heart disease, or health problems like high blood pressure and diabetes. Call 0121 322 2008 or see here.
7. Become a friend to a young person in care. CSV's Allies project matches adult volunteers with young children in the care system to provide an independent and stable role model in their lives, as well as someone to go to the cinema or to go shopping with. The Allies projects operate in Derby, Peterborough, London, Hounslow and Bristol. CSV is particularly keen to recruit more men and people from ethnic minorities. Contact Allies on 01332 370209 or email allies@csv.org.uk.
8. Earthwatch scientists are looking for volunteers to help discover which dinosaurs roamed the Yorkshire coast and upland moors 170 million years ago. This is one of nine short projects run in the UK. Other projects include helping study basking sharks in Cornwall and golden eagles in Scotland. For more information contact Earthwatch Europe, 01865 318831, email vp@earthwatch.org.uk or see here.
9. If you are over 50, you can volunteer with CSV's Retired and Senior Volunteers programme. CSV's older volunteers teach reading to children in schools, help patients at GPs surgeries, and are involved in a wide range of befriending schemes for older and isolated people in the community who may be feeling lonely after the Christmas festivities. Call RSVP on 020 7643 1385 or see here.
10. You can help people combat the winter blues by volunteering with The Samaritans. You can apply online here or call 08705 627282.
