VOLUNTEER ROLE
Volunteer Role Title: Housing Law Advocacy Volunteer (HLAV) Location: Swansea
How you can make a difference?
Everyone in Wales should have a decent affordable home: it is the foundation for the health and wellbeing of people and communities.
At Shelter Cymru we want the people who come to us for help to receive the best service possible. As part of our organisational vision we want to help more people find and keep a home.
Support us to deliver a new Housing Law Advocacy Project to people which will help our clients to fully benefit from the advice we give.
In the role of Housing Law Advocacy Volunteer role you will work alongside one of our caseworkers to help them support our most vulnerable and disadvantaged clients. You will provide advocacy and support to clients which will ensure that they have fair and equal access to our service. You will help them better understand the advice being given in our surgeries and to feel more confident to engage in our services because of the additional support you offer.
What will you be doing?
Your aim will be to get to know, empower and provide support to people accessing Shelter Cymru’s Housing Services.
You will assist the Housing Law Caseworkers and Shelter Cymru clients by providing time outside of the case work appointment to ensure the client has understood what advice has been given, that they understand their rights and that they are able to take any actions needed.
HLAV Nov 2017 You will support the decisions and choices and understand the viewpoint of the person you are advocating for.
You will provide help in signposting to other services that might be able to support the client.
You will communicate effectively with the person you are supporting with and other people involved with their lives.
You will work with all clients equally, without discrimination.
You will research and communicate information.
You will maintaining confidentiality.
Time commitment: We would expect volunteers in this role to be able to commit to 4 hours per week between 10.00am and 4.00pm Monday - Friday
Please note: That due to the complexity of training required to carry out this role a minimum commitment of 6 months volunteering will be required.
Will the role be suitable for you?
When you volunteer with us in this role, you will be expected to represent the values of Shelter Cymru. You will need to show patience, tact and diplomacy and take the time to allow people to fully explain themselves. Some people may be unclear at first about what they want or need and so you will need to develop the skills to encourage them to express themselves in a way that can be fully understood.
Supporting people using the principles of advocacy can be demanding and challenging. It is certainly unpredictable and you may know very little in advance who is what problem or issue they will raise. It can also be incredibly rewarding and makes a significant difference to the lives of people seeking our advice and guidance.
Able to follow instructions and record details to a high level of accuracy. Continually mindful of the purpose and boundaries of the role and particularly carefully follow guidelines regarding the giving of advice. Reliable, honest and non-judgemental
HLAV Nov 2017 Able to quickly establish rapport with people on all levels, have good listening skills and be able to speak clearly whilst understanding the need for confidentiality. It is not a requirement of role but we would be particularly interested if you can communicate in any additional languages i.e. Welsh Bangladeshi, Urdu, Chinese, Polish, Sign language.
How will Shelter Cymru support you and what training will you receive?
This volunteering role is a new complimentary service we will be offering people needing our support so you will be required to complete an extensive training programme of approximately 8 days in duration (over several weeks) in which you will undertake:
Shelter Cymru Core Volunteer Induction Course ½ day
Housing Services Support Overview – what do we do? ½ day
Agored Cymru Level 1 Introduction to Peer Mentoring 4 days (24hrs)
Debt and Benefit Training (Basic) ½ day
Housing Law (Basic) ½ day
In this role there is the potential for committed volunteers to develop knowledge and experience enabling them to deliver more specialists housing advice. You will also have access to courses on Shelter Cymru’s external training programme (subject to relevance and availability of spaces). You will be provided with one to one support within our structured system of volunteer support. You will be reimbursed your agreed out of pocket expenses, in accordance with Shelter Cymru policy Volunteer Expenses Policy.
References and criminal records checks will be taken up as appropriate. This role will require a DBS check.
HLAV Nov 2017