Volunteer Adviser in Chesterfield

Citizens Advice North East Derbyshire provides free, confidential, and impartial advice across North East Derbyshire and Bolsover Districts. We support people with a wide range of issues including welfare rights, debt, consumer problems, employment and housing.

Citizens Advice North East Derbyshire relies on passionate volunteers to help people access the free, independent advice they need to navigate life’s challenges. Whether you have a few hours a week or want to develop new skills, there’s a role that fits you. Our volunteers are at the heart of everything we do. From directly supporting clients with the issues affecting their lives, to helping behind the scenes with essential admin, fundraising, and campaigning work – there are diverse opportunities to match your skills and interests. Whatever your background or experience, you’ll gain valuable skills, meet like‑minded people, and know that your time is genuinely helping your community.

What will you do?

• Complete an introduction to Citizens Advice and training for your role.
• Talk to clients over the phone, video call or face to face to explore what problems they’ve come for help with.
• Find information about the clients’ problems and help them to understand their options.
• Support 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.
• Write a summary of the clients’ problems and what action you’ve taken.
• Look out for problems that are common, or are unfair, and write a short report about the problem or a letter to an elected official like an MP, AM or local councillor.

Some examples of what you could do:

• Help clients with debts work out a reasonable amount to pay back, and make a phone call to an organisation they owe money to.
• Explore what benefits a client is entitled to and help them to complete a benefit application form.
• 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.
• 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‑judgemental 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 5 hours per week. We can be flexible so talk to us if this doesn’t suit. We value diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly encourage applications from disabled people, people with physical or mental health conditions, LGBT+ and non-binary people, and people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.