Volunteers

The Centre has always welcomed volunteers giving their time and energy to complement the work of paid staff.

Volunteers wanting to help have varying degrees of experience - some have been qualified barristers, some are people who are looking for work in the advice field.

Campden Charities provided the Centre with a small grant. This has allowed us to arrange individual training & work plans with each volunteer to enable them to best meet the needs of the clients and allow each of them to develop their skills as front line advice workers.

Our full time advice worker, Paul, supervises the volunteer work to ensure that correct advice is given and a quality service provided.
Individual mentors provide day to day supervision.

Clients have benefited from volunteers providing an invaluable filtering system - to help identify whether people have come to the right place. Where other agencies have been better placed to help, i.e. private practice or another voluntary agency, people can be referred immediately without having to wait in the drop-in queue.

By helping to provide information and advice, volunteers have also helped reduce waiting times for clients waiting for advice during drop-in sessions.

Volunteers have benefitted, as they are able to gain valuable front line experience and exposure to knowledge and good practice within the advice field. They all have access to recognised quality training - a number of volunteers have started the FIAC NVQ advice training.

The Centre has benefitted as more clients can be helped, and more quickly.

Other projects volunteers have carried out include -