Good evening, everyone. Let me start by welcoming you all to this talk and thanking you for taking the time to consider joining ACE voluntary organisation.

各位晚上好。首先请允许我欢迎大家参加这次演讲，并感谢您花时间考虑加入ACE志愿组织。

ACE offers support to people and services in the local area and we're now looking for more volunteers to help us do this.ACE

为当地的居民和服务项目提供支持。我们现在正在寻找更多的志愿者来帮助我们。

By the way, I hope you're all comfortable – we have brought in extra seats so that no one has to stand, but it does mean that the people at the back of the room may be a bit squashed.

顺便说一下，我希望大家都感到舒适。我们已经放置了额外的座位，这样就没有人需要站着了，但这确实意味着房间后面的人可能会有点挤。

We'll only be here for about half an hour so, hopefully, that's OK.

我们只要在这儿待大约半小时，所以希望一切都还好。

One of the first questions we're often asked is how old you need to be to volunteer.

我们经常被问到的第一个问题是成为志愿者的年龄要求。

Well, you can be as young as 16 or you can be 60 or over; it all depends on what type of voluntary work you want to do.

下到16岁，上到60多岁都可以。这完全取决于您想从事哪种类型的志愿工作。

Other considerations, such as reliability, are crucial in voluntary work and age isn't related to these, in our experience.

根据我们的经验，其他考虑因素，例如可靠性，在志愿工作中至关重要，而年龄与这些因素无关。

Another question we get asked relates to training.

我们被问到的另一个问题是培训。

Well, there's plenty of that and it's all face-to-face.

我们有很多培训活动，都是面对面的。

What's more, training doesn't end when you start working for us – it takes place before, during and after periods of work.

更重要的是，您开始做志愿者后培训也不会结束。培训项目会贯穿志愿者活动的前中后期。

Often, it's run by other experienced volunteers as managers tend to prefer to get on with other things.

通常，其他有经验的志愿者负责培训，因为经理往往更喜欢处理其他事情。

Now, I would ask you to consider a couple of important issues before you decide to apply for voluntary work.

现在，我想请您在决定申请之前考虑几个重要问题。

We don't worry about why you want to be a volunteer – people have many different reasons that range from getting work experience to just doing something they've always wanted to do.

我们不在意您想成为一名志愿者的原因。人们有很多不同的理由，有的人想要获得工作经验，也有的人说这只是做了他们一直想做的事情。

But it is critical that you have enough hours in the day for whatever role we agree is suitable for you – if being a volunteer becomes stressful then it's best not to do it at all.

但重要的是，您每天必须有足够的时间来担任我们认为适合您的任何角色。如果成为一名志愿者让您感到压力，那么最好根本不要去做。

You may think that your income is important, but we don't ask about that.

您可能认为您的收入很重要，但我们不会问这个。

It's up to you to decide if you can work without earning money.

大家自己决定是否能够做无报酬的志愿工作。

What we value is dedication.

我们看重的是奉献精神。

Some of our most loyal volunteers earn very little themselves but still give their full energy to the work they do with us.

我们一些最忠诚的志愿者自己挣得很少，但仍将全部精力投入到与我们一起完成的志愿服务中。