About us

We help people who are excluded from society to participate in volunteering and build a more positive future for themselves.

All of our clients can be described as facing multiple disadvantage. We this as ‘two or more issues affecting physical, mental, social or financial wellbeing’.

We don’t have a time limit for our support; we work flexibly to meet the individual needs of every person we help.

Connect

We make connections with our clients through a one-to-one tailored approach, including coaching and mentoring to build confidence and self-belief. We connect with organisations relevant to the client’s skills and interests, and work with them to remove barriers to volunteering for people with complex needs, promoting values these individuals can bring to organisations.

Engage

Our clients engage with organisations through volunteering, and we continue our support throughout. This can include support completing application forms, accompanying them to interviews or going with them on the first day. We can provide mentoring throughout, and recommend follow-on placements to progress skills and confidence.

Empower

Our aim is to empower our clients so they feel positive about their future, and able to see a way for them to get to where they want to be. We want them to feel inspired and motivated, and help them feel valued as contributing members of society, and to build new social networks.

Our History

Step Together was set up in 1994, originally named World Wide Volunteering for Young People. We initially worked with schools to encourage and inspire young people to engage in volunteering. Between 1994 and 2021, we worked with more than 1,000 schools, introducing volunteering to over 200,000 young people.

In 2008, we expanded our focus to support a wider range of vulnerable people facing social exclusion, increasing our reach to three client groups: Young People, The Armed Forces Community, and our Criminal Justice Programme.