Volunteer With Us

ADVICE TEAM – GATEWAY ASSESSOR VOLUNTEER

Hours Required: At least 2 days per week (9.30 am – 4.30 pm) for at least 6 months.

We recruit and train volunteers to join our Advice Team as Gateway Assessors. This is a key frontline role helping people who are seeking information and advice. Gateway Assessors find out about the client’s problem and situation, and how we can assist them. This might be providing information, making an appointment with an Adviser, or making a referral to another organisation.    

We start a number of Gateway Assessor volunteer programmes during the year. The Gateway Assessor certificate programme takes approximately 6 months to complete, and for the first 6 weeks there is initial training including group training each week. On completion of the Gateway Assessor programme volunteers may go on to undertake training to become volunteer Advisers.

This role involves:

• completing an introduction to Citizens Advice and training for your role
• talking to clients face to face, over the phone, or online to explore what problems they need help with
• finding information about the clients’ problems and helping them to understand their options.
• assessing and agreeing the appropriate next step with the client
• writing a summary of the clients’ problems and what action you’ve taken
• looking out for problems that are common, or are unfair, and writing a short report about the problem or a letter to an elected official like an MP, AM or local councillor.

ADVICE ASSISTANT VOLUNTEER

Hours Required: At least 1 day per week for at least 4 months, ideally 9.30 am – 4.30 pm .

Advice Assistant Volunteers work with our Operations Team and Advice Teams to provide administrative support for our services to clients.        

In this role the range of tasks may include:

• maintaining client records and inputting data.
• assisting with the reception service when people visit the service.
• handling correspondence and other documents
• handling phone calls and taking messages
• completing satisfaction surveys with clients
• working with the Advice Team to help clients with specific tasks, such as completing an application form or finding required information online
• contributing to our research and campaigns work by identifying issues that affect a lot of clients

Trustee

Hours Required: Board meetings are usually held in the evenings, starting at 6.00 pm. There are 5 board meetings each year, plus the Annual General Meeting.

Each local Citizens Advice is a registered charity with its own Board of Trustees who are responsible for deciding how the local Citizens Advice is run, including deciding how resources are used, making sure the charity is fulfilling its purpose and has all the relevant policies and procedures in place.

As a Trustee you will:

• complete an introduction for your role
• maintain an awareness of how Citizens Advice Southwark is operating, read papers for board meetings and attend 6 meetings per year
• work on specific projects with other Citizens Advice Southwark trustees or staff to further the strategic objectives of the organisation
• contribute to discussion at board meetings and work with other trustees to:
  • set policy and strategy direction, set targets and evaluate the performance of Citizens Advice Southwark
  • monitor the financial position of the organisation ensuring that it operates within its means and objectives and that there are clear lines of accountability for day to day financial management
  • ensure that all the finances and supporting financial control systems are in order including that full financial records are kept for all transactions, that money is only spent for the purpose given, and that proper financial controls are in place to safeguard the organisation’s resources
  • seek the views of all sections of the community and monitor how well the service meets the needs of the local community
  • ensure that the service plans for the recruitment and turnover of staff and volunteers
  • review its own work and how effectively it operates including action for improvement

Closing date for applications:    Friday 31st January 2025 at 5.30 pm