Volunteering Roles

Generalist Adviser

Hours: 8-10 Hours per week

Location: Durham, Seaham, Spennymoor or Stanley

If you’re eager to make a significant impact on people’s lives by helping them navigate their challenges, this role is perfect for you.

As a Generalist Adviser, you’ll volunteer at the core of our service. Your responsibilities will include interviewing clients, face to face and over the phone to understand their needs and gathering details about their circumstances. Utilising our comprehensive information system, you’ll identify the best solutions for each client. Together with the client, you’ll agree on the next steps to help them resolve their issues.

Our advisers play a vital role in supporting our communities, and you can volunteer at various offices throughout County Durham. We reimburse agreed-upon travel expenses for your trips to and from your home to your local office or training locations.

No prior advisory experience is required, as we provide thorough training.

However, some familiarity with IT is necessary since much of the training is conducted online, including e-learning modules, video calls, and virtual workshops. IT skills will also be applied in the role for online research on our information system, case documentation, and written communications.

Main duties and responsibilities may be:

• Conducting interviews with clients, both in person and over the phone, allowing them to articulate their inquiries while assisting them in prioritising their needs.
• Locating, interpreting, and clarifying relevant information, as well as exploring options and implications to enable clients to make informed decisions.
• Aiding clients with filling out forms, submitting benefits claims, and preparing for assessments related to their claims.
• Ensuring that case records are completed clearly and accurately.
• Identifying, reporting, and providing evidence for issues relevant to research and campaigns.
• Staying informed about significant issues by participating in relevant training and engaging in essential reading.
• Upholding client confidentiality and adhering to the Confidentiality Policy and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Essential Skills and Qualities Required:

• Non-judgmental attitude
• Friendly and approachable demeanour
• Capacity to gather pertinent information with empathy through active listening and various questioning techniques
• Proficient written communication skills
• Ability to swiftly extract relevant details from documents
• Experience in conducting research using web-based systems and word processing software
• Dedication to the Aims and Principles of the Citizens Advice service, including its Equality and Diversity Policies.

Training:

The adviser training program is comprehensive, and rightly so. You will need to deliver high-quality advice across a variety of inquiry areas. It is crucial that we provide accurate information to our clients while ensuring it is documented correctly. We recognise the challenges this presents and are committed to supporting you throughout your training journey and beyond.

Your learning will include extensive online modules through our national Citizens Advice learning platform, alongside hands-on observation and participation in our office activities. Additionally, you will join various training events, both virtual and in-person. One-on-one support will be available from our Learning team as needed, and as you advance, you will receive guidance from supervisors and encouragement from your colleagues.

Commitment:

All our Volunteer Generalist Advisers dedicate a minimum of 8-10 hours each week for at least 18 months. Typically, it takes between 12 and 18 months to become a fully qualified adviser, though you may begin working independently with clients after 3-6 months, depending on the time you can contribute and your progress. As you work solo, you’ll gain experience with a variety of clients and different inquiry areas. Additionally, you’ll focus on achieving the necessary standards for case recording during our quality assessments. Thus, it’s evident that volunteering as an adviser for Citizens Advice requires a significant commitment, but we also invest considerable resources in your development.

Services Support Volunteer

Hours: 8-10 per week

Location: Durham, Seaham, Spennymoor or Stanley

Main duties & Responsibilities may be:

• complete an introduction to Citizens Advice and training relevant for your role
• help with the day to day running of the Citizens Advice service including Reception duties
• call clients to arrange/amend appointments, reply to emails and post
• order stationery
• type up letters and read through documents checking for mistakes
• print and scan documents using a printer
• update spreadsheets and databases
• assist with archiving
• assist in arranging events
• Support with recruitment tasks and onboarding new staff/volunteers
• Minutes taking for meetings

Essential Skills & Qualities Required:

• be friendly and approachable
• respect views, values and cultures that are different to your own
• have good IT skills (Office 365)
• 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

Research & Campaigns Champion

Hours: Flexible

Location: County Durham

Research and campaigning is fundamental to our mission. When policies and practices influence people’s lives, our data narrates their stories, as do our clients who share the effects on their experiences. All our volunteers and staff contribute to our research and campaigning efforts. A volunteer focused on research and campaigns holds a vital position; they might examine client cases linked to particular problems or emerging issues, like the increase in energy bills. Alternatively, they may assist with ongoing campaigns concerning Universal Credit. The topics can range from local issues to national campaigns spearheaded by Citizens Advice. Learn more about our campaign work.

Main Duties & Responsibilities: 

• complete an introduction to Citizens Advice and training for your role
• identify common, or unfair, problems that clients come for help about
• help volunteers and staff across the organisation understand the cause of the problem, how it affects clients, and what change would solve the problem
• help to organise campaigns with the aim of raising awareness of the problem. This might involve creating materials, such as newsletters, or presentations, or writing something for social media or newspaper, which could be used to explain the problems to others (such as local councillors, or members of the public)
• help to organise a campaign with the aim of getting the organisation (person or elected body such as MP, AM or local councillor) that is causing the problem, to change the way they do things. This could mean meeting with the organisation, person or elected body, writing to them or holding an event
• help national Citizens Advice carry out research about how certain issues affect clients in your local area. This might involve doing a survey with clients to find out how a change in a benefit is affecting them

Essential Skills & Qualities Required:

You don’t need specific qualifications or skills 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 excellent verbal and written communication skills
• be able to understand complex information and explain it (verbally and in writing) so that others understand it
• have good IT skills
• 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

Commitment:

We can be flexible about the time spent and how often you volunteer so please talk to us.