Assessor

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VOLUNTEERING EVENT - Wednesday 20th April 2025 and Wednesday 7th May 2025

Make a Difference in Your Community and Discover Your Volunteering Potential!

Attend our 'Advice First Aid' Session from 1:30pm to 4:00pm

The cost-of-living crisis is taking its toll on many and Citizens Advice Rushmoor is seeing an increasing need for our services so we are looking for more volunteers to join our team. We invite you to our Farnborough office for an immersive 'Advice First Aid' session to gain hands-on experience using our systems and resources and to equip you with the skills needed to provide invaluable assistance to those in need. We are seeking compassionate and dedicated individuals to join our team of volunteers and help us provide essential support to those facing challenges with their finances, benefits, employment, housing, and more. Before committing to volunteering, we aim to provide a realistic understanding of what it means to be a part of the Citizens Advice Rushmoor Team so this session is an ideal opportunity to assess whether our work aligns with your interests and aspirations. 

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Do you want to make a positive impact on the residents of Rushmoor? Do you want to contribute to Citizens Advice Rushmoor's sustainability and future resilience?

Citizens Advice Rushmoor is a local independent charity, committed to meeting the needs of our diverse community.  With over 50 volunteers, and about 37 paid staff, we respond to around 9,000 clients each year, generating over 29,000 different advice issues. We deliver our service through as many different channels as we can, to make sure we are accessible to everyone.  Our primary contact is by phone, as our service delivery model has changed since the pandemic; as well as offering webchat, email, outreach and in person help at our premises in Farnborough and Aldershot.

We run a lot of different projects, to help meet community needs, ranging in size and focus, and have won national awards for our work, including the “Championing Equality” award, for the Nepali language services we deliver.  Our Heathlands service, which specialises in delivering casework for clients with serious mental illness, leads the way for wider Citizens Advice developments in mental health; and we are one of 16 national delivery centres for the highly regarded Pension Wise service.

At Citizens Advice Rushmoor our volunteers deliver nearly all our public facing services and we offer you excellent training and support when you start your volunteering journey with us. Volunteering can be done from home, so your training and supervision can take place remotely – but there will always be someone on hand to help. The hours are flexible - most of our information and advice giving roles take place during office hours.

Assessing clients to establish the best way we can help is an essential part of managing and delivering our service. As an assessor, you will be the first point of contact for clients who approach us for help. You will carry out an initial assessment with the client to identify the best way we can help them.  This could be by providing them with information, signposting or referring them to another organisation, or arranging an appointment for detailed advice.

Some examples of what you could do:

• Find the information online that explains how to apply for Council Tax Support in a client’s local area and explain it to them
• Identify what steps a client can take to resolve their problem with a second hand car
• Help a client find and understand what steps they can take to deal with their rent arrears

What skills do I need?

You don’t need specific qualifications or skills but you’ll need to:

• be friendly, patient and approachable
• respect views, values and cultures that are different to your own
• have excellent verbal and written communication skills
  
• have good maths and IT skills
• be able to understand information and explain it to others
• be willing to learn about and follow the Citizens Advice aims, principles and policies including confidentiality and data protection
• be willing to undertake training that relates to your role

This is a great opportunity for someone who is looking for a new challenge and enjoys working with people. The work is very varied and you have a real chance to make a difference in someone’s life. We are looking for someone who can commit to a day (or two half) days a week but we can be very flexible. We provide comprehensive training and support as well as a very friendly working environment. We will also cover your travel expenses.

Interests

• Civic Responsibility and Communities
• Employment, Education and Training
• Health and Social Care
• Homeless and Housing
• Mental Health

Activities

• Administration and Office
• Advice and Information
• General Helping
• Supporting Charities
• Supporting People and Befriending

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