Volunteer with Citizens Advice Barnsley

Our service wouldn’t be the service it is without the involvement of volunteers. Volunteers operate in a variety of different roles, contributing in many ways to the aims of the service. Every volunteering role involves full training and ongoing support and supervision. We ask that volunteers commit between 4 and 8 hours per week to their volunteering activities, depending on the role. You need to be literate and numerate and have some basic IT skills. We will pay your travel expenses, so don’t worry about the cost of commuting!

Need a reason to volunteer? Here are 10 reasons why you should volunteer with us:

Make a difference – It can be incredibly rewarding to contribute your time and energy as a volunteer to a cause you care about.

Boost your confidence – Trying something new and getting out of your comfort zone every now and then can do wonders for your confidence levels.

Do something interesting – Don’t let your spare time trickle away – fill it with something interesting and challenging that does make a difference!

Meet new people – Tired of doing the same things with the same group of people? Meet new people and make new friends when you volunteer with us.

Improve your prospects – Having volunteering on your CV demonstrates that you’re someone with drive, initiative and the desire to use or improve your skills. Around half of the volunteers who leave us each year go into paid work.

Get to know your community – Whether you’ve lived in the Barnsley borough for 20 years or have just moved here, you’ll develop a great understanding of the area and the people living in it by volunteering with us.

Put your talents to use – Are you a good communicator? Do you enjoy helping people through challenging times in their lives? Are you passionate about campaigning to make a positive change? Come and share your talents with us.

Enjoy free training – You’ll receive free training, for example as a Gateway assessor, Money coach, Receptionist or Advisor. As well as volunteering opportunities, we also have apprenticeships and work experience placements.

Gain work experience – Get ahead of the competition for jobs or study places with some real work and life experience.

We need you! – 75% of the people who work in Citizens Advice Bureaux nationally are volunteers and we simply wouldn’t be here for our clients without their help.

But if that isn’t enough, here is what some of our current volunteers say:

• “I feel lucky to be volunteering for such an influential organisation, I have acquired valuable skills and have been given great support through my training and practical work. The staff are amazing.”
• “It is great place to volunteer; you learn new skills, make new friends and work with good people.”
• “You can leave at the end of the day and think – I really made a positive difference today to my client’s situation and when a client says they have really appreciated your help it just makes it all worthwhile.”

If you want to find out more about what involved in our volunteer roles, see the role descriptions on the right of this page.

If you’re interested in volunteering with us, please contact us. We’ll be glad to hear from you.