Face to Face Adviser

Face to Face Adviser

Posted for Citizens Advice Lancashire West

Posted by Volunteer Centre Blackpool, Wyre & Fylde

Register your interest

You will be redirected to the Volunteer Centre Blackpool, Wyre & Fylde website to express your interest.

Roles available at our offices on Tues & Thurs at Fleetwood Market (9:30 - 15:30).

Friday in the church hall, next to St Thomas Church, Church Street, Garstang. PR3 1PA Fleetwood (9:30 - 15:30).

There’s never been a more important time to volunteer for Citizens Advice.

The cost of living affects everyone and is increasingly having a major impact on people's mental and physical well-being. 

Join us as a volunteer and play a vital role in helping people find a way forward with the problems they face.

What’s in it for you?

• 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.

And we’ll reimburse expenses too.

Volunteers who give advice to our clients are at the heart of our service. Volunteers are supported and supervised as they begin to give advice and will get feedback and development opportunities throughout their time with Citizens Advice.

The role of Generalist Adviser

Our volunteer advisers talk to clients over the phone, face-to-face and online to explore what problems they've come for help with and find information about possible options. Advisers then help clients to understand the information, and support them to take action.

Some examples of what you could do:

• 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 understand their housing rights
• interviewing a homeless client to find out what their housing options are and helping the client decide their next steps

Time Commitment

We ask volunteer advisers to:

• volunteer for approximately six hours minimum per week, either one full day or two half days, for at least six months
• complete your training by attending our 8 week group training programme or complete the self-study online training, or a combination of both.

We know that volunteering is a significant commitment. We’re happy to discuss being flexible if you have less time but think you can still support our services.

What skills do I need?

What are we looking for?

We are looking for volunteers who are approachable, reliable, available for at least one day a week, and able to demonstrate the following skills:

• Listen and explore the issues the client faces
• Show empathy and understanding to someone who is distressed
• Present a client with the options available to them when reaching a solution
• Empower a client to self-help when directing them to the help available
• Navigate through our online systems to provide the right information
• Have digital skills e.g. Cut and paste information into a document
• Provide written notes on actions a client might need to take
• Recognise when a person may require specialist help