Volunteer

How to join us

The work of local Citizens Advice Bureaux would not be possible without people like you. Two thirds of the workers at Ellesmere Port and Neston CAB are volunteers.

There are many ways to get involved. You could train to be an adviser, help with office administration or clerical work, get involved with fundraising, use your I.T skills, or sit on our Management Committee.

You don't need qualifications or previous experience as we can provide training. Some people use CAB training and experience to help them move on into paid employment.

Being an adviser

All our volunteer advisers are fully trained. You do not need to have any qualifications or experience but the following abilities will help:

• Be a good listener
• Be open-minded
• Able to read complex information and then explain it to someone else
• Enjoy working as part of a team
• Able to do simple maths
• Available for at least six hours each week
• Willing to learn new skills

Volunteer advisers work with clients in a variety of ways. Advisers look up information to help clients understand what their rights are. They make telephone calls for clients to help sort out problems, for instance to a gas supplier to query a high bill, or to the local council to check on the progress of housing repair. Advisers help to write letters and fill in forms. They calculate entitlement to welfare benefits and advise clients on how to make a claim.

Adivce work can be very demanding, but it can also be very rewarding and every day is different.

Training

All CAB advisers complete a training course, which takes four to six months. The training course has four parts:

1: Training packs

Groups of trainees work through the training packs with a tutor, in the bureau. Our tutors are experienced CAB workers who are based in the Ellesmere Port Bureau. Trainees learn how to interview, research and reporting skills and about the main subject areas that people want help with like employment, benefits, consumer rights, dealing with debt and housing problems.

2: Sitting In

The second stage of the training gives you "on the job" experience, sitting in with an experienced adviser. Trainees are able to listen to clients explaining their enquiries and can practice looking at information and writing reports.

3: Basic Training

All trainees attend 6 days of training [spread over seven weeks] at our regional training office in Liverpool. This is an opportunity to meet volunteers from other bureaux and to practice all the skills you have been learning.

4: Supervised Interviews

After completing all the training packs, it will be your turn to start interviewing clients, with an experienced adviser to help you and a supervisor on hand to give you all the support you need.

5: What Next?

We ask all our advisers to work for at least 6 hours each week - 1 day or 2 half days. We also hold a training session on the third Wednesday of each month to help us keep up to date with our skills and knowledge.
If you find some parts of the work particularly interesting you could go on to train as a specialist adviser, for instance in consumer issues, employment, housing, benefits or money advice.

Admin and clerical volunteers

The CAB is a busy office and we need volunteers to help us with a variety of tasks:

• word-processing
• filing
• photo-copying
• book keeping and accounts
• updating information
• shredding

How to find out more

If you would like to find out more you can write to us, see contact information or telephone 0151 357 3853 and ask to speak to Gail or Wendy.