As a charity, SCPA is completely dependent on our volunteers. Although we have four part-time members of staff, we estimate that our volunteers collectively work about 50% more hours than our paid staff do. Some work just a few hours a month on average, while a handful support us for more than ten hours per week. We are therefore fortunate to be able to offer people wishing to volunteer not only flexibility over hours served but also a wide variety of roles. Here are some of the roles that volunteers carry out:
Companion: We often need someone to accompany our trained staff on a home visit to client. No training is required but is available if desired. This role does not require any long-term commitment: each visit is arranged by mutual consent. (DBS required.)
Befriender: A Befriender is someone who walks alongside a service user throughout their journey with us. As a result, time commitment may only be for only a couple of hours per month but potentially over an extended period (one to five years). For each service user, the role is likely to be accompanying one of our specialists to meetings at the service user’s home at the outset of their journey. Once the involvement of the specialist has finished (e.g. on agreement of a Debt Management Plan), the Befriender continues to meet with the service user to support them in their journey: this could be a coffee in a public place once a month. Clients are matched with Befrienders on the basis of proximity and gender. (Befriender training, Safeguarding training and DBS all required.)
Course volunteer: Running Life Skills or Money Coaching courses requires a high ratio of team members to service users to support the latter in their experience of the course. The courses themselves are run by specialists who are trained for the course (see below). However, the leaders are complemented by a number of volunteers whose role is simply to help users make the most of the course content. Courses vary in length from 4 to 8 weeks and we prefer course volunteers to be local if possible, to form better and potentially durable relationships with users. (Safeguarding training and DBS required.)
Debt First Responder: A DFR could be described as a “super-Befriender”: a volunteer who at times might accompany a specialist but will often be the first SCPA person to visit a service user at the outset of his/her journey with us. The DFR might hear the person’s story and identify and carry out emergency forms of support. This could be ringing the user’s utility provider to prevent termination of supply, applying for an emergency grant or simply assessing the user’s circumstances so as better to prepare the specialist ahead of his/her first meeting. This is a vital role given the demand pressures (and resultant waiting list) that we are enduring. (specific DFR training, Safeguarding training and DBS all required.)
Triage Agent: As part of our strategy for 2030 seeking to address our service users’ holistic poverty needs, we are increasingly triaging new clients. If the DFR role is a “super-Befriender”, this role is a “super-DFR” and is carried out by both paid staff and volunteers. Additional aspects to this role include not only use of our triage (needs identification) techniques but also the opportunity to offer Money Coaching and Guidance (not as legally demanding as Debt Help). Triage Agents might interact with service users at different intervals depending on the service interventions identified and time spent with a client would tail off after relevant interventions had been completed, with Befrienders taking on the longer-term support role. Support therefore can be required in bursts, across potentially multiple service users. (as per DFR plus Triage and Money Coaching/Guidance training.)
Specialist roles: Some of our specialist roles are carried out by volunteers (e.g. our leaders in Life Skills and Money Coaching) and course leadership can also be conducted by volunteers. In each case, specific training is provided. (specific functional training ,Safeguarding training and DBS all required.)
Leadership roles: In addition to our client-facing staff and volunteers, there are a number of leadership roles that are carried out by volunteers. These include: strategy advice and formulation, funding support, church relationship support, web-site maintenance, social media curation, data management and outcomes tracking, administration and finance. All these roles are currently carried out by volunteers! Each of these roles requires some level of technical understanding and finding volunteers with the requisite skills and experience can be difficult but the overall success of SCPA is just as dependent on the back-room team as it is on our wonderful client-facing people. (relevant functional skills, Safeguarding training and DBS all required.)
Social Media: in this ever-changing world we recognise the need to promote our services and opportunities to as wide an audience as possible. If you are able to assist us in this field, we would be delighted to hear from you
The key things to say about our volunteers are that they are all Christians (and we seek a suitable reference from his/her Church leader accordingly) and that the key characteristics that we consistently look for are compassion for those experiencing poverty and a passion to serve.
This is just a snapshot of the many ways that you could support SCPA in a volunteer role. For more information please contact doug.fletcher@scpa.uk