Citizens Advice Northumberland Community Advisor

If you want to make a real difference to people's lives by assisting them to find a way forward with their problems, this is the role for you.

As a Community Adviser you will volunteer at the heart of our service. You will interview clients to find out their needs and to gather information about their situation. Then you will use our extensive information system to find the right solution for the client. You will work with the client to agree on the next steps to move them forward in resolving their problem.

Community Advisers provide an essential service supporting our communities and you can volunteer in our offices across Northumberland. We pay agreed travel expenses to and from your home to your local office or training venues.

Previous advisor experience is not necessary as full training is provided.

However, you will need some IT experience due to a lot of the training being online including e-learning, video calls and online workshops. IT is also used in the role - online research on our information system, case recording, and written correspondence.

Training

The Adviser training programme is very thorough because it needs to be. You will have to be able to provide quality advice on a wide range of enquiry areas. It is important that we are giving the correct advice and information to our clients while also recording it appropriately. We understand how demanding this is and fully support you throughout your training journey and beyond.

There is extensive online learning done via our national Citizens Advice learning platform combined with observation and participation in work in our offices. You will also attend some training events (virtual and face to face). You will have one to one support with training as needed from one of our Learning and Development team, and as you progress assistance from supervisors and encouragement from all your colleagues.

Commitment

All our Volunteer Face to Face Advisers commit to at least 5-8 hours of their time each week for a minimum of 12 months. It usually takes between 12 and 18 months to become a fully trained adviser, but you could start working solo with clients after 3-6 months depending on how much time you can commit, and your progress.

Please note - Basic DBS required when working solo with clients - usually after 6 months

Once working solo, you build up experience of working with different clients and different enquiry areas. You will also work on getting case recording up to the required standard for our audits. From this you can see that it is quite a commitment to volunteer as an adviser for Citizens Advice, but we also invest heavily in you.

The qualification is nationally recognised and provided you do not stop advising for over a year, you can return to any Citizens Advice office in the country and with minimal refresher training continue to work as an adviser.

Community Adviser: Based in Local Offices Alnwick, Amble, Ashington, Berwick, Blyth, Cramlington, Hexham, Morpeth, and Prudhoe.