Support Session Volunteer

• VoiceAbility

• VO97665

Could you support unpaid carers or people with disabilities to access benefits? Could you help someone find local services? Could you help someone understand the information they have been given about their care and support? Could you support or lead a group of people on a topic of interest?

You could help improve the quality of someone’s life.

This role is ideal for social work students, an interest in the care sector or retired professionals.

Support Session Volunteers help our clients with general advocacy, supporting people with a variety of challenges. This helps us to reduce waitlists and support more individuals by:
• Helping clients understand about advocacy
• Supporting clients to self-advocate with our tool kits
• Signposting clients to other services where required
• Supporting the service to deliver “collective” advocacy sessions
• Light Touch Advocacy
• Supporting advocates with casework
• Promotion of services and the organisation
• Logging activity onto our systems

Volunteer, Ben’s priorities changed after a serious illness. “I wanted to give something back. It’s really rewarding as you get to use your knowledge and skills for a really good purpose.”

You’ll develop skills in communication and confidentiality, add experience and knowledge to your CV, and know you’re making a genuine difference to people’s lives.

Perks and Benefits:
Reference after 6 months of volunteering.
Robust training programme
The opportunity to make a positive difference to people with care and support needs.
The opportunity to learn new skills, meet new people and gain experience in your chosen volunteering role/s
The opportunity to help us develop our volunteering work
Additional learning & training opportunities

Experience required

Volunteering with VoiceAbility is ideal for people who have or want experience in human rights, health, care and wellbeing - but we care more about your values and empathy than your level of experience.

Some beneficial skills and qualities to have are:
• Good communication skills – written and verbal
• Empathy and patience when dealing with clients
• A knowledge of or interest in advocacy
• A basic level of IT literacy – email, docs
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to manage own time and prioritise workload
• Ability to work independently & as part of a team
• A commitment to the aims and ethos of VoiceAbility

Travel details

The role is work-from-home, as we have no main "office base". Volunteers are expected to carry out their task of supporting clients via phone call or video call, completing paperwork, or attending team meetings online. However, volunteers are also expected to meet clients in person to offer face-to-face support if needed. This would be across your specific geographic area of Orkney and you will be expected to travel locally and attend networking events to promote the service.

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