Volunteer Advisers are an integral part of Citizens Advice Oxford, advising clients face to face in Oxford Central Library, on the phone and by email. Once you have completed our Advice Assistant training, you can complete further training to go on to become a full Adviser.
Advisers are trained and fully supported by experienced staff, and can access regular online briefings, updates and training opportunities. We also hold in-person social events to get together with staff and other volunteers.
Click on the links below to find out more about advising clients.
► What will you do?
- complete an introduction to Citizens Advice and training for your role. talk to clients over the phone, face to face, or online to explore what problems they need help with.
- find information about the clients’ problems and help them to understand their options.
- empower 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.
- document the client’s issue and the action you’ve taken to help resolve it.
- contribute to our research and campaign work by providing information to our Research and Campaigns team who will use it to make recommendations to
- government, regulators and companies about how they could fix the underlying causes of problems.
Some examples of the difference you will make to clients:
- support a client who is dealing with debt to work out a reasonable amount to pay back, and make phone calls to the organisations to whom they owe money, to negotiate an affordable pay back plan.
- explore which benefits a client is entitled to and help them to make a claim.
- 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, debt, 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’ll reimburse expenses too. If you're training to be a solicitor and you train and volunteer as a local Citizens Advice adviser, you may be able to get up to six months off your solicitor training contract. See Solicitors Regulation Authority for more information.
► 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 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.
► How to apply to become an Advisor
Either apply now by clicking the button below, or if you have more questions about this role, email us at recruitment@citizensadviceoxford.org.uk
