The biggest advice charity in the South Hams is asking people to come forward and help.  Citizens Advice South Hams is looking for volunteers to join its adviser training programme and become part of their advice team.  The local charity gives free confidential advice to anyone who has a problem with debt, benefits & disability issues, housing, employment, family problems, homelessness, consumer rights and more.

The local charity wants to recruit volunteers for their Dartmouth office which operates in Dartmouth Clinic on Tuesday mornings and their Ivybridge office which operates in the Watermark Centre on Monday mornings.  In a bid to encourage more people to have a go at volunteering, the charity is offering taster mornings on Friday 8^th November in the Flavel, Dartmouth and Friday 15^th November in the Watermark Centre, Ivybridge.  The mornings will start at 10am and go on until midday and should give prospective volunteers an idea of how Citizens Advice works, what a typical client advice session is like and how to navigate their advice website.  Anyone interested in volunteering should come along, there is no need to book.

Teena Barrett, Advice Services Manager at Citizens Advice South Hams says, “We already have an amazing group of 60 trained volunteers in the South Hams some of whom have been with us for over 12 years.  They work alongside a small number of paid staff, advising and helping local residents with their problems.  Our volunteers come from all walks of life, there are no specific qualifications or experience required to train for the role, just an ability to be open-minded, good at listening, enjoy helping people and have basic computer skills.   All of our volunteers say that working with us and helping others is enormously satisfying.”

The advisor training programme runs for a day a week for seven weeks, during which time new volunteers learn the skills of a “Gateway Adviser” so they can act as the first point of contact for anyone approaching the charity with a problem.  The training programme and the experience that Citizens Advice gives can help those seeking paid employment back into the work place.

General information on volunteering for Citizens Advice can be found by clicking the “Volunteer with Us” tab.

 If you would like to find out more about volunteering but can’t make the taster mornings, email volunteering@southhamscab.org.uk.   After training all Citizens Advice volunteers are supported and supervised as they give advice.

Are you a friendly, confident person who enjoys helping others and has one day a week to spare? If you are, then Citizens Advice South Hams, the biggest advice charity in the South Hams is asking people to come forward and help. The local charity is looking for volunteer receptionists to help at its main office in Follaton House, Totnes.

The role of receptionist requires a short induction course and not the full adviser training. It is a volunteer role with paid expenses. If interested please click here for an application form or email
reception@southhamscab.org.uk  for more details.

We need your help. Did you know we are a local charity? We are here to provide information and advice to the people of South Hams.
Your help is vital to us. There are lots of ways you can make a difference. You can:

• Volunteer with us
• Fundraise for us
• Promote our service
• Donate to us

What we do
Whatever problem you’re facing, or query you might have, our dedicated team of volunteers and paid staff can provide the information and advice you need.
We’ll help you find a way forward.

We help thousands of people each year and when we identify policies and practices that are unfairly affecting people’s lives we campaign for change.

We take pride that our services are – and always will be – free, independent, impartial and confidential. You can rely on us.

How we can help
Based at Follaton House in Totnes, we work across the South Hams and surrounding area. Our team of over 40 trained volunteers and paid staff help over 4,000 local people each year. We can help with household bills, debt, benefits and working tax credits, employment issues, housing issues, relationship problems and more. Last year we helped resolve over 9,000 issues and generated more than £1.9m benefit to our clients.

You can access advice from this website – just type your query into the search bar – by telephone, email or by dropping into our offices in Totnes or one of our outreach centres in Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, or Ivybridge.