Volunteer Roles
It may be possible to do some of your volunteering from home if you wish - ask about hybrid volunteering.
Initial Advice Role
All new advisers are trained to be Initial Advisers. As an Initial Adviser you will likely be the first person a client speaks to when they call the Citizens Advice helpline or use the Citizens Advice Email or Web chat service. Most of our Initial Advises are volunteers and we could not run the service without them.
The training and practice is in stages, so you can get comfortable with each stage before moving on. Some people may choose to stick with email advice or outbound calls but we like as many as possible to progress to inbound calls as that is where most of the demand is.
- Email advice - email advice allows plenty of time to research the client's issue and get your advice checked before sending your reply to the client
- Outbound calls - you will call clients who have already had an initial assessment., so you will know a little about their advice issue before calling them.
- Inbound calls - you will take inbound calls to the Citizens Advice help line.
- Webchat - if you can't use a phone but want something a bit more challenging than email advice you could train to do advice by webchat.
A small number of our most vulnerable clients may need to be seen face to face. This is usually done by our most experienced Initial Advisers.
Initial Adviser Role - click to find out more about this role
Most of our volunteers will continue to volunteer as Initial Advisers but other advice roles are available for those who have the interest and aptitude and who have been signed off as competent Initial Advisers.
Form-filling Adviser Role
Form filling Advisers assist clients with complex benefit forms.
Form filling Adviser - click to find out more about this role
Full Adviser Role
Full Advisers give more in-depth advice than Initial Advisers. This can be on any topic, but you might like to concentrate on one area of advice at first, such as benefits or employment.
Full Adviser - click to find out more about this role
We also use a small number of volunteers in our specialist teams. You would be expected to have at least 12 months experience as an Initial Adviser before we would consider you for one of these roles.
Research and Campaigning Roles
Research and Campaigns is a key part of what we do as a Citizens Advice local service.
Research and Campaigns Worker - click to find out more about this role
Reception and Administration Roles
We occasionally use volunteers to cover reception during our drop-in advice sessions and to assist our administrators.
Reception and Admin Volunteer - click to find out more about this role