Citizens Advice Eastbourne - Gateway Assessor

Are you interested in helping people in the local community? Eastbourne Citizens Advice are looking for volunteers who can spare time each week to talk to clients over the phone, face to face, or online to explore what problems they need help with.

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 by giving information and/or
signposting to help with their enquiry.
- write a summary of the clients’ problems and what action you’ve taken
- look out for problems’ that are common, or are unfair so that Citizens Advice can potentially try and influence government and
other organisations to make positive changes

What’s in it for you?

- you can make a real difference to people’s lives
- you will learn about a range of issues such as benefits, debt, employment and housing
- you will build on valuable skills such as communication, listening and analysing
- you will increase your employability
- you will work with a range of different people, independently and in a team.
- you can have a positive impact in your community.

We’ll reimburse expenses too!

How much time do you need to give?

To enable a regular service to our clients, we ask our Assessor’s to commit to a minimum of 2 sessions (6 hours in total) per week (Monday to Friday), plus some homework during training.

Morning sessions run from 10am-1pm and afternoon sessions from 1pm-4pm. You can choose to do 1 full day or 2 separate sessions. Please note that Citizens Advice Eastbourne currently closes on a Tuesday and Friday afternoon.

Given the investment into training, we would ask you to be willing to commit to at least 8-12 months service with us

What do you need to have?

You don’t need specific qualifications or skills but you’ll need to:

- be friendly and approachable and have good listening skills
- 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 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
- be willing to receive feedback on your work so that quality can be maintained in the Bureau
- be prepared to contribute towards a safe and positive working environment.

If you are interested in finding out more or applying for this role, please email Kelly at administrator@eastbournecab.co.uk for more details.