I June 2017: Celebrating Volunteer Week 2017: Citizens Advice LeicesterShire congratulates 39 volunteers who have moved into paid work this year
Volunteering with Citizens Advice LeicesterShire can help people to gain work experience and move into paid employment. During the year April 2016 – March 2017, 39 Citizens Advice LeicesterShire volunteers left to pursue a job offer.
Many moved on to jobs in the legal, housing, voluntary or local authority sectors, helped by the knowledge, skills and experience gained while volunteering with Citizens Advice LeicesterShire.
Citizens Advice LeicesterShire has 231 volunteers who give general and specialist advice to clients across Leicestershire, on diverse topics such as housing, employment, welfare benefits and debt. Others help with reception, admin and fundraising.
All volunteers complete a training programme which not only teaches them the factual information they need but also soft skills such as listening and communicating with clients and colleagues.
One former volunteer from Highfields, who spent a year volunteering at Citizens Advice LeicesterShire, now works in a graduate role for a local voluntary organisation. She said:
“I decided to volunteer at Citizens Advice to get involved with my local community and learn new skills. Before I started, my work experience was mostly in retail and customer service. My time as a volunteer allowed me to build my confidence and interact with new people, as well as gain experience that helped me to find work in a new sector.
“Being part of service that helps people with the problems they face was also very rewarding.
“My new job involves supporting the delivery of funding programmes, helping with admin, supporting research and helping to evaluate projects. Volunteering with Citizens Advice gave me the skills I need to do this job – I developed initiative, learned to work within a team, improved my communication skills and gained an eye for detail.
“Volunteering also strengthened my drive to work for an organisation that strives to make a difference.”
Richard Evans, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice LeicesterShire, said:
“It’s fantastic to see so many of our volunteers gaining the skills and confidence with us to help them on their journey to employment.
“As someone who started out at Citizens Advice as a volunteer, I know how much there is to learn, but also how useful it can be, from learning to pass on complex information to people from all backgrounds, to asking questions sensitively to make sure we get the full picture from a client so that we can help them.
“This Volunteers Week, it’s great to mark the achievement of those who have moved on into work, and also say a huge thank you to everybody that gives their time to volunteer with Citizens Advice LeicesterShire.
“As an organisation, we depend on volunteers to allow us to keep providing the free, confidential, independent and impartial advice that people in Leicestershire rely on to cope with their problems.
“We literally could not do it without the generosity and dedication of our volunteers.”
Volunteer Week runs from 1 – 7 June 2017. If you would like to become a Citizens Advice LeicesterShire volunteer, visit http://www.leicscab.org.uk/volunteer/ or call 01455 818443. There is an open day for people who want to find out more about volunteering on Tuesday 27 June, 2.30 – 4pm at our City office, 3rd Floor, 60 Charles Street, LE1 1FB.