Volunteer Advice Roles

Do you have a friendly telephone manner and can tick any one of the following?

• You want to help people
  
• You want to keep your brain active and learn new skills
• You love meeting people and want to make new friends?
• You want to enhance your CV?

If so, we want to hear from you! We are looking for local people to train as volunteer advisers - no experience necessary. You just need to be friendly, non-judgmental, willing to learn and be able to use a computer.

What will you do?

• complete an introduction to Citizens Advice and training for your role
• talk to clients over the phone, face to face, or online to explore the problems they need help with
• find information about clients’ problems and help them to understand their options
• support clients to take action to resolve their problems. This might include drafting or writing letters, making phone calls, or referring the client to another organisation
• write a summary of the clients’ problems and what action you’ve taken
• look out for problems that are common, or are unfair, and write a short report about the problem

Some examples of what you could do: 

• help a client with debts access the support they need 
• explore what benefits a client is entitled to and help them to complete a benefit application form.
• help a client who has problems with their landlord to understand their housing rights. 

 Working with us you will:

• make a real difference to people’s lives 
• learn about a range of issues such as benefits, debt, employment and housing.
• build on valuable skills such as communication, listening and problem solving, and increase your employability
• work with a range of different people, independently and in a team.
• have a positive impact in your community.

We welcome applications from all sections of the community

What skills do I need?

You don’t need specific qualifications or experience; Advisers receive full training and always have a supervisor available but you’ll need to:

• be friendly and approachable
• be non-judgmental and respect views, values and cultures that are different to your own
• have good listening skills
• have excellent verbal and written communication skills
• have good maths and IT skills
• be able to understand information and explain it to others
• be willing to learn about and follow the Citizens Advice aims, principles and policies, including confidentiality and data protection
• be willing to undertake training in your role

Interests

• Disability
• Homeless and Housing
• Older People

Activities

• Administration and Office
• Legal Work
• Supporting People and Befriending