Volunteer Roles
To apply, please complete our on-line form or phone Helen Wallwork, on 01223 222681.
How to volunteer
Why we need your help
As an independent local charity most of the work at
Cambridge CAB is carried out by
highly trained volunteers. Without this support we would
cease to function, as more
than eighty per cent of our workforce is voluntary.
The aim of Citizens Advice Bureau is: "to ensure
that individuals do not suffer
through lack of knowledge of their rights and
responsibilities or of the services
available to them, or through an inability to express
their needs effectively and
equally: to exercise a responsible influence on the
development of social policies
and services both locally and nationally." We
assist all walks of people within the community by
giving them the information and tools needed to manage
their problems; working in areas including debt,
housing, benefits, employment, and relationships.
How you can help
The Cambridge Bureau has several ways in which
individuals can volunteer, depending on the experience
they are looking for and the amount of time they have to
give. These include gateway assessing, advising,
reception, database
administration, administrative office support, social
policy research, researching client outcomes, helping
clients fill out income/expense sheets, and becoming a
trustee.
Contacting Cambridge CAB
If you are interested in any of the volunteer opportunities please either fill in the on-line form or contact our Support Coordinator for Volunteers, Helen Wallwork, on 01223 222681. Alternatively, you can email her.
Bureau Coffee Mornings
Volunteers are invited to the Bureau for a coffee morning. This is an introduction to Cambridge Bureau and what we are about. It also gives you a better insight into the opportunities for volunteering and what each role entails. When we are recruiting, we tend to schedule these mornings once every six weeks.
Screening
As the work at CAB often involves contact with vulnerable people or their personal details, we ask all our staff and volunteers to be willing to submit to a Criminal Records Bureau check. A criminal record will not necessarily be a bar to working at Cambridge CAB.
Roles
Gateway Assessor
Gateway Assessors are volunteers responsible for
assessing clients’ needs, both face-to-face and over the
phone. This is the first step for those volunteers who
would ultimately like to go on to be trained to give
generalist advice. However, some assessors find this
role so varied and interesting that they prefer it to
advice work.
Gateway Assessors conduct brief initial interviews with
clients to make a first diagnosis of their problem and
make sure they are dealt with as appropriately and
quickly as possible. This assessment is tailored to the
individual’s needs, and the assessor identifies the
appropriate next step, whether that is signposting to
another organisation, making an appointment in-house for
generalist or specialist advice, or giving the client
more information. They do not give advice.
Training is not as lengthy as that for Generalist
Advisers, which can take up to nine months. Gateway
training is covered in six mandatory sessions, usually
one day a week over a six week period. It includes
observation of trained assessors, and fully
supervised interviewing training. Gateway Assessors are
trained and expected to work with clients in whatever
way they choose to access the bureau, be it in person or
by phone.
Once trained, we are looking for a commitment of the
equivalent of one day a week volunteering – this could
be two half days, or one full day in the Bureau. This
would be both seeing clients at our weekday morning drop
in session, and working on an afternoon phone rota for
clients who find that option more convenient. We need
volunteers to be reliably available on their nominated
days. Ideally, we are asking for nine months commitment,
with the very least a minimum of 6 months.
Gateway Assessors need to be friendly and approachable
demonstrate good judgment, and possess excellent
communication skills, both written and oral. They need
to give and receive feedback objectively and
sensitively, to be comfortable using web-based
information and our database system while working with
clients, and to be flexible and willing to work as part
of a team.
If you think you would be suitable and are interested in
this role please contact us.
Generalist Adviser
This is a volunteer opportunity where you will be dealing directly with the public, helping them to solve their problems.
All our advisers receive extensive professional training to participate in advice work. Generally, they will have worked as gateway assessors for several months before undertaking adviser training. Advising is the most time-intensive volunteer role. The training course takes six months. It requires one day a week in a class environment, two coursework modules to be completed by the trainee adviser at home, and a minimum of one half day per week on work experience within the bureau.
After completing the course, trainee advisers work with an experienced adviser, gaining skill in giving advice. This is the period when the trainee needs to complete the two coursework modules at home. They submit cases they have worked on for evaluation to prove their competency in a number of subject areas.
It usually takes a minimum of nine months to become a fully qualified adviser. After completing the training, we ask each adviser to work two sessions a week. Our morning session runs from 9.30 a.m. to 1p.m., and our afternoon session runs from 1 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. on weekdays.
Courses for gateway and advice generally are held twice a year, but this varies depending on the Bureau’s staffing needs. Demand is high so please contact us as soon as you know you are interested.
Receptionist
This
is an ideal volunteer opportunity for those looking to
use their people skills. Working on reception, you are
the first person our clients see, and you form the first
impression a client would have of our Bureau.
Our doors are open to everyone, regardless of gender, race, age or religious beliefs. Some of our clients are emotional or upset when they come to see us. As a receptionist, you must greet each of them as equals and be empathetic to their feelings and their needs. You must be willing to treat everyone with confidentiality, sensitivity, and impartiality, consistent with Citizens Advice Bureau’s aims and principles.
Full training is given and all new receptionists spend time sitting with experienced receptionists to become familiar with the role. You will need good people and communication skills, lots of patience, and the ability to help clients face-to-face and over the phone.
You will also need to have computer skills as our appointments and information systems are electronically held. Receptionists usually work in pairs with one taking main responsibility for entering clients’ registration data onto the database system (or searching for the details of existing clients). The other will meet and greet clients, take phone calls, and work with the advisers and their supervisors on managing appointments and other matters.
If you think you have the skills and the ability to help, given some training, please get in touch.
Most receptionists give us half a day per week, but more is always welcome.
Database Administrator
All advice given out by our advisers is recorded onto a database. The electronic records give us visibility of what information or advice has been given so that the client does not have to explain the issue all over again when revisiting.
Clients can have full access to their own files, but otherwise the information kept in them is totally confidential.
We have volunteers who work on administrating this database. This is a great opportunity for those seeking to advance their ICT skills. It also requires less commitment than some of the other roles and would suit someone who is looking to work intermittently and cannot commit to a specific time each week.
Database administration can include scanning and attachment of external documents brought in by the clients to written database records, and data correction in cases of duplicate records or closing old data files on resolved problems. They do work that allows us to keep complete and accurate records.
Please contact us if you are interested in this role.
Admin Support Worker
Like any busy office we always have general administrative functions that need to be supported.
Our Admin Support volunteers can work with any number of our staff. They may help by scanning documents, handling mail, and filing client records, among other office functions.
Cambridge Citizens' Advice is a vibrant and fast paced environment, but we pride ourselves on the friendly and open nature of our staff, which makes this a great place to work.
This opportunity would suit someone who wants to do some volunteer work but cannot commit to too much time. It is also well suited to someone coming back to work after a period spent away, looking to add to their experience.
Please contact us if you would like to get involved.
Social Policy Researcher
We need volunteers who are able to join our team to help with co-ordinating our social policy work, taking on research, helping with surveys (putting them together and collating the results), checking the local press for new issues and preparing responses, and helping to brief advisers and staff to look out for particular issues in our area.
Please contact us if this role interests you.
Researching Client Outcomes
One frustration of our advice and assessment work is that often, a client leaves our bureau and for any number of reasons, does not come back to update us on the outcome of their case. We enjoy hearing success stories, as well as knowing if a client could use any more assistance. We are developing a group of volunteers who follow up with out clients to learn the outcomes of their cases. Not only does this help us know how our service is working, but it assists us in approaching funders who are interested in the results we are able to achieve within our community. This job requires excellent phone skills and an ability to learn and use our client database.
Contact us if you are interested.
Helping Clients Fill Income/Expense Sheets
Cambridge CAB is trying to create a ‘pool’ of form fillers who
will work by an appointment system to help our debt
clients fill out income and expense sheets.
Before debt clients work with one of our specialist debt
advisers, they must complete an income and expense
sheet. This information helps the adviser to work with
the person’s creditors in seeing the client’s full
financial picture. It helps the specialist determine
which debt relief option might be best for a client. If
repayment is considered a viable option, these sheets
show the adviser how much a debt client can
realistically offer a creditor as repayment.
Some debt clients are able to fill this form themselves. Others need our help to fill it accurately and completely. Volunteers who take on this role must have the hours between 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. free at least one day per week. The volunteer should be free at the same time each week because we will be scheduling clients to see them, and sudden changes to volunteer availability detract from our ability to provide a reliable service to our clients.
Training will consist of a few hours of database training, followed by a day’s course on the sheets themselves, as well as our internal processes in working with them. Trainees will be have the opportunity to observe and be observed/supported in client interviews until all parties feel confident that the volunteer has the skills to work with clients independently.
Contact us if you are interested.
Trustee
The bureau is a charitable company, limited by
guarantee, incorporated on 26 April 1996 and registered
as a charity on 13 June 1996. The company is established
under a Memorandum of Association which identifies its
objects and powers and is governed under its Articles of
Association.
Our trustees are volunteers.
The trustees are also directors for the purposes of the
Companies Act and they exercise overall responsibility
for the strategic direction, organisational policy and
planning, finance and decision making of the
organisation.
There are some limitations on becoming a trustee but,
please get in touch if you think
you would be a suitable candidate.