Member Article

Make volunteering a New Year resolution

An advice charity in Darlington is asking people to consider making a New Year’s resolution to sign up as a volunteer.

Citizens Advice Darlington is an independent charity run by local people for the benefit of local people, providing advice and improving policies and practices that affect people’s lives.

Last year, the charity relied on volunteers to help people solve more than 24,000 problems, mostly about money, benefits, housing and employment. This year, the charity is appealing for Adviceline telephone assessors in particular – people who are the first point of access for clients when they ring the charity’s Adviceline number.

Dawn Gill, advice services manager, said: “An Adviceline telephone assessor is a diverse role but you will not be expected to know it all. We provide all the training to help you develop the skills needed to deliver an excellent level of service to clients. Adviceline assessors deal with a wide range of clients’ problems and issues, refer clients for more specialist advice if appropriate and help prevent future problems by identifying issues that affect a lot of clients.”

Specific qualifications or experience is not required for the role, but volunteers need to be good at listening, have a good telephone manner, have basic computing skills, be open-minded and non-judgemental and enjoy helping people. Problems they may have to deal with range from debt and benefit issues, through to consumer and relationship queries.

Volunteers able to commit at least six hours a week will also receive regular training, information and support to maintain their skills and knowledge.

Jamie, a volunteer for Citizens Advice Darlington, said: “I became far more confident, both face to face and over the telephone and have become far more active within the community as a whole.”

There are currently more than 70 volunteers at Citizens Advice Darlington and in a drive to recruit more the charity is hosting an information drop-in event on Tuesday, January 19, from 10am until noon, for people to find out about the roles on offer, training and about the benefits of volunteering.

“Volunteers are the lifeblood of our organisation” said chief executive Neeraj Sharma. “Everybody’s contribution makes a real difference to people who have encountered problems in their lives across a range of issues.”

The open morning will be held at Citizens Advice Darlington, Bennet House, Horsemarket, Darlington. For more information, phone 01325 256999 or email training@darlingtoncab.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Citizens Advice Darlington .