Housing, Employment and Advice Team (HEAT) Volunteers

Our Housing, Employment and Advice Team (HEAT) works with people experiencing homelessness to find sustainable solutions. We provide advice and advocacy to those who are homeless or facing homelessness and work with those who need assistance dealing with the council, the DWP and other statutory organisations. The Team also supports clients to prepare for employment by offering careers advice, CV writing and interview preparation, training and weekly IT workshops.

As a HEAT volunteer, you will help us to provide services for a range of clients. You will work as part of a friendly team of volunteers and staff to help clients with making phone calls, filling out forms and doing other admin work. You will assist in ensuring the HEAT team space is a welcoming environment, supporting clients to write CVs and facilitate the IT workshop on Wednesdays.

You’ll need excellent communication and people skills as well as confidence and enthusiasm. You’ll be working with people who have varying degrees of vulnerability and can, at times, present with challenging behaviour. You don’t need to have worked with people who have experienced homelessness before, but you will need to be very client/people focussed, patient and organised.

Duties may include:

• Welcoming clients arriving for appointments
• Form-filling
• Making phone calls
• Helping to solve problems
• Photocopying and scanning
• CV writing
• Note-taking

This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone who wants to progress to a career in health, homelessness, social care or welfare work. We'll provide a full induction, training in relevant skills and knowledge, supervision and monthly reflective practice. We'll provide lunch, cover any travel expenses and arrange a DBS check.

We ask you to commit to a minimum of one session a week for six months. Hours are Monday – Friday, 9am – 1pm or 12:30pm – 4pm or all day with a 1-hour lunch break.