Volunteers
Thank you for your interest in volunteering with Citizens Advice Milton Keynes.
Volunteering can be hugely rewarding! If you’d like to boost your CV and enhance your skills for life and work or you are simply looking to help people from your community, then you should consider volunteering for us.
We are one of a network of over 250 bureaux across England and Wales. You may even have visited us for advice – over 40% of the population has!
We have a variety of roles to suit your skills, experience and interests and we are proud of the fact that our volunteers come from many different backgrounds and walks of life.
We are looking for people who:
- Can commit to a minimum of 8 hours a week
- Volunteer for at least 6 months
- Are up for a challenge and enjoy helping people
- Are good communicators and listeners
- Are non judgmental
- Have a good standard of written and spoken English and do basic maths
We are also interested in hearing from anybody who speaks a second language fluently or has a qualification in British Sign Language (BSL).
Please note that applicants should be at least 18 years of age.
Current Roles
What will you do?
- complete an introduction to Citizens Advice and training for your role
- talk to clients over the phone, by video, face to face, or online to explore what problems they have come for help with
- find information about the clients’ problems and help them to understand their options
- support clients to take action to resolve their problems. This might include drafting or writing letters, making phone calls, or referring the client to another organisation
- write a summary of the clients’ problems and what action you’ve taken
- look out for problems’ that are common, or are unfair, and write a short report about the problem for our research and campaigns officer
Some examples of what you could do:
- help client with problems at work to understand their employment rights.
- explore what benefits a client is entitled to and help them to complete a benefit application form.
- help a client who has problems with their landlord to understand their housing rights
What’s in it for you?
- make a real difference to people’s lives
- learn about a range of issues such as benefits, employment and housing.
- build on valuable skills such as communication, listening and problem solving, and increase your employability
- work with a range of different people, independently and in a team.
- have a positive impact in your community
And we will reimburse expenses too.
No prior experience is necessary in these areas as you will receive full training.
For individuals who are doing advice giving roles, and who are also training to be a solicitor, if you started training to be a solicitor before 1st September 2021, you may be able to get up to six months reduction in your training contract.
If you started training to be a solicitor after 1st September 2021, you may be able to include time spent volunteering (or working) in advice giving roles as part of (or all of) your qualifying work experience. See Solicitors Regulation Authority for more information.
How much time do you need to give?
Ideally we ask for 8 hours per week, which can be over one day or spread over two days, for at least 12 months.
We can be flexible so come and talk to us.
Valuing inclusion
Our volunteers come from a range of backgrounds and we particularly welcome applications from disabled people, people with physical or mental health conditions, LGBT+ and non-binary people, and people from Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
If you are interested in becoming an adviser and would like to discuss flexibility around location, time, ‘what you will do’ and how we can support you please contact us.
Contact details
Apply
What will you do?
- complete an introduction to Citizens Advice and training for your role
- talk to clients over the phone, by video, face to face, or online to explore what problems they’ve come for help with
- find information about the clients’ problems and help them to understand their options
- write a summary of the clients’ problems and what action you’ve taken
- look out for problems’ that are common, or are unfair and report these to our research and campaign officer.
Some examples of what you could do:
- find the information online that explains how to apply for the Blue badge Scheme 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 get their tenancy deposit back once they have left a rented property.
What’s in it for you?
- make a real difference to people’s lives
- learn about a range of issues such as benefits, debt, employment and housing
- build on valuable skills such as communication, listening and analysing
- increase your employability
- work with a range of different people, independently and in a team.
- have a positive impact in your community.
And we’ll reimburse expenses too.
What do you need to have?
You don’t need specific qualifications or skills but you’ll need to:
- be friendly and approachable
- be non-judgmental and respect views, values and cultures that are different to your own
- have good listening skills
- 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 in your role
How much time do you need to give?
Ideally we ask for 8 hours per week, which can be over one day or spread over two days, for at least 6 months.
We can be flexible so come and talk to us.
Valuing inclusion
Our volunteers come from a range of backgrounds and we particularly welcome applications from disabled people, people with physical or mental health conditions, LGBT+ and non-binary people, and people from Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
If you are interested in becoming an assessor and would like to discuss flexibility around location, time, ‘what you will do’ and how we can support you please contact us.
Contact details
Apply
Purpose of Role
- To help clients who are not confident find and use online solutions
- To offer one-to-one support in learning new digital skills and/or to develop existing digital skills.
Role Description
Volunteers will need to:
- Assist clients to find online information and to help with online form filling (no advice involved)
- Review someone’s current Digital confidence and help to identify areas of development
- Review a client’s situation and understand if they maybe encountering hardship and missing out on opportunities due to Digital exclusion for example benefits and job applications
- Share their digital skills to help beginners and less confident people to make use of online tools
- Offer support through basic coaching in the areas of development from beginner level using online learning courses
- Develop someone’s understanding of Data Protection and the importance of online security.
- Give guidance on Health & Safety when using IT equipment.
- Signpost to partner organisations who may be able to offer further support
- Alert location supervisor of any faults or issues with equipment, network or internet connections should simple fix not be found.
Skills and knowledge required
- A basic understanding of digital applications and PC software
- People skills and reliability
- Respect for confidentiality
- A willingness to engage the public
- A willingness to follow ways of working and to work as a team
When/Where required
- Monday – Thursdays 9am – 3pm
- 4 hour sessions minimum per week
- Skills Centre, The Centre MK, Silbury Boulevard, MK9 3BE /Acorn House 361 Midsummer Boulevard MK9 3HP
Volunteer Development/training
- Citizens Advice Volunteer Induction/ GDPR training/Casebook training/Digital Skills module training Further training opportunities will be available through Citizens Advice
We are looking for enthusiastic and motivated people who would like to participate in campaigning against unfair policies of government, service providers and other bodies.
As one of our Research & Campaigns volunteers you will help us campaign on local and national issues.
Researchers are as vital to our organisation as any advice giving role. Without them we could not demonstrate the impact this important service has on the many thousands of people in Milton Keynes who use it every year
Main duties include:
- identify common, or unfair, problems that clients come for help about
- help to organise a campaign to influence change
- help national Citizens Advice carry out research about how certain issues affect clients in your local area. This might involve doing a survey with clients to find out how a change in a benefit is affecting them
- help volunteers and staff in the local Citizens Advice understand the cause of the problem, how it affects clients, and what change would solve the problem (by talking to them, or writing a summary)
- Working with the co-ordinator to draft articles and press releases to highlight the work of the bureau to local media.
The ideal candidate will:
- be friendly and approachable
- be non-judgmental and respect views, values and cultures that are different to your own
- have excellent verbal and written communication skills
- have good IT skills
- be willing to learn about and follow the Citizens Advice aims, principles and policies, including confidentiality and data protection
- be willing to undertake training in your role
As a volunteer for the Research and Campaigns team you will be given a full induction into the bureau to help you learn about our systems and the service we offer to our clients. You will be able to make positive impact in your community and broader society. You will also learn about a range of areas such as benefits, debt, and housing, and how problems in these areas can affect clients. The best part is you will never be working alone – our research and campaign coordinator, supervisors, case workers and experienced volunteers are on hand to give you support and encouragement every step of the way
