The Cost of Living (COL) Peer Volunteer role is a specific and specialist volunteer role within West Sussex Mind. The Peer Volunteer uses their lived experience, gained through navigating their own mental health journey to work in partnership, as equals with service users, to enable them to achieve their goals.
Peer Volunteers within the COL project can provide support in a variety of ways. Helping individual service users on a one-to-one basis either over the phone or face to face. Supporting with financially related welfare difficulties to enable the service user to get the appropriate outcome for their welfare needs.
The project runs until February 2024.
What's involved:
Up to 2-3 hours per week in Littlehampton, Worthing, Bognor Regis or Southwick
- Engaging with various service users mostly over the phone to conduct follow up welfare checks and assist with specific tasks to help them access of cost of living support
- Possible face to face support required out of West Sussex Mind centres to help services users access appointments or community resources
- Assisting in completing forms or written tasks to help services users access appropriate supports
- Working alongside project staff to get an understanding of the service user’s situation and record keeping/note taking as required to document your work
Location: Covering West Sussex – based mainly from home and/or Littlehampton, Worthing, Bognor Regis or Southwick (volunteer can be area specific)
Timing: 2 -3 hours per week Monday to Friday
What we ask for:
- Good telephone manner, ability to listen nonjudgmentally and with active listening
- Good communication skills, good time keeping, understanding of boundaries, able to work within the scope of confidentiality and with an objective approach
- Adequate experience of personal financial management - How to budget, how to make enquiries to utility companies
- Ability to offer support to enable people to access external agencies
- Your mental health is at a point of relative stability, giving you the resilience to thrive in this role and enabling you to meet the required time commitment
- Need to be reliable, motivated, friendly and approachable, supportive, empathic, empowering, patient
For more information, please email laura.neilson@westsussexmind.org