Creating Safer Communities Outreach Volunteer (Edinburgh)

This role offers a unique opportunity to be part of an exciting new project aimed at addressing the root causes of antisocial behaviour and homelessness. Creating Safer Communities (CSC) seeks to address challenges associated with antisocial behaviour, street drinking, substance use, begging and homelessness, by adopting a holistic and community-centric approach. The project recognises the underlying issues faced by individuals engaging in harmful street activities and intends to foster community inclusion, improve well-being, and reduce the negative impact on both individuals and the community. The project aims to make it easier for people to avoid, resolve and recover from the harmful impact of street lifestyles.

Role Purpose

By supporting people to find a safe and tolerant environment that will understand their trauma responses, CSC will explore safe spaces for people to connect, while co-producing and co-designing the project alongside them. By understanding the drivers behind people’s behaviours, we hope to improve people’s outcomes and support people with:

• Community Inclusion: Creating safe and tolerant environments for individuals with trauma responses.
• Improved Health and Well-being: Providing targeted health initiatives and access to services.
• Empowered Skill Development: Offering activities to boost confidence and employability.
• Strengthened Support Services: Collaborating with partners to address diverse needs.
• Holistic Approach to Recovery: Providing tailored support and access to well-being resources.
• Reduced Social and Economic Barriers: Addressing financial challenges and promoting digital inclusion.
• Strategic Intentions: Providing recommendations for long-term responses.
• Reduction in Harmful Behaviours: Tackling root causes of antisocial behaviour and homelessness.

Specific Tasks

Successful CSC volunteers will:

• Help facilitate different psychosocial groups and help run different physical and non-physical based activity days.
• Join focused outreaches aimed at recruiting people into different groups and providing individual support.
• Develop tailored, person-centred and trauma-informed support plans for people.
• Assist staff to facilitate the co-designing and co-producing of group work with people who access the CSC service.
• Help to create pathways for people into other services e.g. We See You (our harm reduction service), Street Pharmacy or our support hub, as well as other external programmes.
• Deliver low threshold harm reduction (support that makes minimal demands on the person).

Skills and Qualities Required

Successful Volunteers will:

• Have the ability to work with people in a way that takes into consideration their individual and cultural beliefs without expressing personal opinion.
• Be able to approach your volunteering role and tasks with a flexible and non-judgemental attitude.
• Be empathetic towards our client group.
• Have good communication and people skills.
• Enjoy meeting and interacting with people from diverse backgrounds.
• Have resilience and tolerance with people who have faced multiple exclusions.
• Be very welcome to bring their own skills and talents into the space and be willing to share them.

Commitment

We welcome volunteers to stay with us and continue to help us make a difference in people’s lives. 12 months would be the ideal minimum but we respect your time and commitments elsewhere. For this role we ask for a minimum of 4 hours per fortnight. The hours would be carried out between 9am and 5pm, weekdays. Our recruitment follows the Safer Recruitment process, which means giving consideration to safeguarding arrangements at every step. We will ask you to attend an informal interview, provide us with two references and attend our Mini IMPACT training – a shortened version of our dynamic 5-day staff programme.

Support and Training

A full and comprehensive induction is provided for this role. In-role training is available – we value our volunteers and want to ensure you are equipped with the skills you need to fulfil your role. Simon Community Scotland together with Volunteer Scotland and Disclosure Scotland will support you with the required PVG process. You will be fully supported in your role and will always work in a pair with a Development Worker or Support Worker embedded in our Street Team.

What’s in it for me?

For as little as 4 hours a fortnight you have the chance to meet new people and be part of an amazing team who are passionate about what they do. Everything we do is about and for people: the people we support, our staff, our partners and everyone affected by homelessness. Each person involved brings their individual skills and creativity to the work we do. This is a chance for you to make a real difference to the most vulnerable people within your community and pick up essential skills that are valuable to employers.

Our expectations

We need people who care about our client group and who are enthusiastic and able to respond flexibly to a role that can sometimes be challenging, but brings great rewards and satisfaction. We need you to be fully committed to Simon Community Scotland’s Mission and Core Values and adhere to our policies/procedures and Code of Practice.

All information provided is confidential and in accordance with GDPR. For any further assistance, please contact us: volunteering@simonscotland.