Volunteering
There’s more than one way to volunteer. Do you want to make a real difference to the lives of people in your community?
North Yorkshire Citizens Advice and Law Centre is a charity and relies heavily on the time and commitment of our volunteers who are from a wide range of backgrounds and work in various roles.
There’s more than one way to volunteer, from driving our Advice Van to filling in forms and from answering our busy Adviceline to weeding our outdoor areas. If you can’t see yourself in one of the roles below, get in touch and we can have a chat about how you could fit into our team.
Answers to some of the most often asked questions about volunteering with North Yorkshire Citizens Advice and Law Centre can be found here.
Why we volunteer
Volunteer opportunities
Administrator
A sound support structure is essential for the running of any organisation. Administrators are key to enabling the advice centres to run smoothly and efficiently. There are various administrative roles, so we will try to match your skills and time to our service needs.
The administrator tasks include:
- Using computer spreadsheets, databases and word processing software
- Maintaining and developing administrative systems
- Stock control of leaflets and materials and updating local information
- Helping to arrange events
- Handling correspondence, telephone calls and emails
- Taking notes and minutes at meetings
Advice Bus and Van Driver
Our small team of drivers are an essential part of our service allowing us to offer outreach advice sessions across North Yorkshire.
As a driver you will help us with:
- Driving and taking care of the Advice Bus and Van
- Assessing advice issues and offering information to clients on a range of topics
- Promoting the range of services offered by Citizens Advice and our partners
- Assist with research and campaigns work by providing information as appropriate
You must have a Full UK Driver’s licence with no more than 6 points for minor offences.
Fundraisers
Citizens Advice North Yorkshire is a registered charity and is totally dependent on funding from a variety of sources including the statutory sector, charitable trusts and private donations.
We are always looking for fundraising volunteers to work in the following ways with our Chief Executive Officer and the wider senior leadership team, to meet our fundraising objectives:
- Researching fundraising opportunities online and in the community
- Help organising local fundraising events
- Supporting the promotion of our work through updating our marketing materials.
Even if you only have a few hours a week to spare, this makes a big difference to our efforts, so please get in touch if you feel like you can make a difference.
Media
Some volunteers help to promote the local Citizens Advice service, raising the profile in the local community.
Media volunteer tasks may include:
- Creating media content to help people know how they can use local Citizens Advice services, how they can volunteer at local Citizens Advice and promoting local and national campaigns
- Arranging and attending events or talks
- Writing press releases
- Using social media.
Research and Campaigning
By using evidence routinely collected from the clients, you could help bring about changes in local and national policies and services which can benefit everyone - even those who have never used a local Citizens Advice.
As a campaigner, you would:
- Complete and collate evidence forms recording client’s problems
- Identify and raise relevant issues in the bureau
- Train staff and volunteers in identifying issues and completing evidence forms
- Conduct research and write reports
- Get involved in media campaigning
- Liaise with other local Citizens Advice, organisations and agencies.
Volunteer recruitment and support
Some of our volunteers are involved in recruiting and supporting other volunteers.
This might involve:
- Creating leaflets and posters to promote volunteering
- Creating social media content or going to a volunteering fair
- Helping other volunteers with using IT.
We aim to be as inclusive as possible so we also have some volunteers who help other volunteers with practical support where needed, such as typing up notes or making telephone calls.
Adviser
Without our team of trained volunteer Advisers we could not meet the demands for our service. They are key to our service.
We would be looking for volunteers that are willing to make a minimum commitment of 18 months, including a weekly time commitment to this role, excluding holidays.
The role of an Adviser is to:
- Interview clients in the advice centre, over the telephone and at outreach sessions
- Research information from our electronic information system and other sources
- Provide advice, explanation and help with the choices and consequences that the client faces
- Help clients negotiate with people such as creditors and service providers
- Give practical help by writing letters, making telephone calls, completing forms, etc.
- Refer clients to other agencies who are better placed to help
- Keep detailed records of all clients’ cases
- Prevent future problems for clients by identifying failing policies and poor services
The Adviser’s Skills
You don’t need any particular qualifications or experience to train as an Adviser but you will need to:
- Demonstrate that you understand and support the Aims and Policies of the Citizens Advice service
- Have good listening skills
- Be able to work in a team
- Have good communication skills and be able to read and write English and do basic calculations
- Enjoy helping people
- Be supportive to clients and colleagues
- Be confident using Information Technology
- Understand problems people may be facing in the local community
We provide free formal and comprehensive accredited training which is backed up by excellent support, supervision and guidance to help you develop the skills you need to deliver a high quality service to our clients. Once you have qualified as a Generalist Adviser, you will have the opportunity to develop further skills and increase the depth and breadth of your knowledge.
Benefit Form Filler
You will assist clients to complete forms for benefits and help them to understand the procedures and eligibility criteria. This role offers an opportunity to gain experience in an advice and guidance role and support local people in your community.
A form filler’s role includes:
- Completing an introduction to Citizens Advice and training for your role.
- Completing paper and online forms with clients, for example to apply for a benefit, or to complete an application for money or equipment from a charity.
- Writing a summary of the clients’ problems and what action you’ve taken.
- Looking out for problems’ that are common, or are unfair, and write a short report about the problem or a letter to an elected official like an MP, AM or local councillor.
Specific qualifications and experience are not required to take on the role, however you will 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
- Be able to understand information and summarise it
- Be willing to learn about and follow the Citizens Advice aims, principles and policies, including confidentiality and data protection
- Have good maths and IT skills
- Be willing to undertake training in your role.
IT Support
A wide range of our essential work depends on well-run IT systems. We use them for keeping track of cases, keeping in touch with clients, accessing e-services on their behalf, and monitoring trends.
IT Support tasks include:
- Providing general IT support all workers, including staff and volunteers
- Troubleshooting
- Training staff and volunteers in IT skills.
Receptionist
Receptionists contribute to the smooth running of the advice service and are often the first point of contact into the service for many of our clients.
The receptionist tasks include :
- Welcome all clients and other visitors to the local Citizens Advice
- Manage client expectations and provide clients with our client information form to complete
- Input information from the client form onto our database
- Print and scan documents
- Update spreadsheets and databases
- Answer the telephone, reply to emails and post
- Help with the day to day running of the Citizens Advice service.
Specific qualifications and experience are not required to take on the role, however you will need to:
- Have a good manner when talking to people
- Have basic computing skills
- Have an understanding of, and commitment to, confidentiality
- Be friendly and approachable.
Trustee
Citizens Advice North Yorkshire is a registered charity with a Board of Trustee Directors.
Some of the Trustee roles require specific skills but we welcome people of all ages, backgrounds and experience who are representative of our local community. The Trustee Board meets in the evenings so this role could well fit with other full time employment or responsibilities. If you would like to play a central role in a well known and respected charity, this might be just what you’re looking for.
The Trustee Board is responsible for the Governance of the advice centre. It is responsible for:
- Welcome all clients and other visitors to the local Citizens Advice
- Manage client expectations and provide clients with our client information form to complete
- Input information from the client form onto our database
- Print and scan documents
- Update spreadsheets and databases
- Answer the telephone, reply to emails and post
- Help with the day to day running of the Citizens Advice service.
Specific qualifications and experience are not required to take on the role, however you will need to:
- Have a good manner when talking to people
- Have basic computing skills
- Have an understanding of, and commitment to, confidentiality
- Be friendly and approachable.