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Street Team Volunteer Edinburgh

  • Simon Community Scotland
  • VO80773

Description

Provide positive, practical support to people on the streets of Edinburgh who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
This is an essential and rewarding volunteer role that supports people in our city who experience tough realities. We help people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness or are worried about their accommodation and offer personal support that matches their needs.
We’ve been doing this for over 30 years.
As part of a wider team – made up of a dedicated Street Team and Street Cycles Team that cover Edinburgh City and outskirts, a Housing First team that works intensively with people and the Holyrood Hub, our centre for support and advice – you could make a huge difference to someone’s life, pick up valuable skills and experience and contribute to societal change within your own community.
Our vision is that everyone should have a safe place to live and access to the support they need. As a Street Team volunteer, you could help us achieve this quite simple but simply challenging vision.
For people going through difficult times, face-to-face support can really help. Our aim is to help people off the street as quickly as possible and into accommodation where they are safe, warm and supported. This can mean building relationships with people, listening to their situation and linking them with necessary services to meet their immediate needs.
We stick by people and support them to work out the solutions that work best for them.

Specific Tasks
Street shifts are on foot and carried out with members of our trained staff team
Provide positive, practical support to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Edinburgh
Provide people with support and encouragement to seek and achieve positive solutions
Offer practical help such as distribution of water, underwear, socks, Period Friendly Packs and other basic necessities
Maintain a record of the people you have been in contact with throughout your shift (using our online database)
Participate in group team meetings to aid continuous improvement of our volunteer experience and how we provide support to people in our services

Skills and Qualities Required
Successful Street Team Volunteers will:

Have a reasonable level of fitness to be able to walk for hours on a shift in changeable weather
Have the ability to work with people in a way that takes into consideration their individual and cultural beliefs without expressing personal opinion
Be able to approach your volunteering role and tasks with a flexible and non judgemental attitude
Be empathetic towards people who receive our support
Have good communication and people skills
Enjoy meeting and interacting with people from diverse backgrounds

Commitment
We welcome volunteers to stay with us and continue to help us make a difference in people’s lives. 12 months would be the ideal minimum but we respect your time and commitments elsewhere.
For this role, we ask for a minimum of 4 hours per week/fortnight
Our recruitment follows the Safer Recruitment process, which means giving consideration to safeguarding arrangements at every step. We will ask you to attend an informal interview, provide us with two references and attend our Mini IMPACT training – a shortened version of our dynamic 5-day staff programme.

Organisation aims and objectives

Every day we help make positive things happen for people facing extremely difficult circumstances. We provide expert, compassionate and flexible support and link people into the services they need. We deliver a range of services across Glasgow, Edinburgh (Streetwork) and across Central Scotland. We work with people so that they can resolve their homelessness as quickly as possible. We maintain contact with people – in diverse circumstances – so that we can help them address the underlying reasons for their homelessness and get the support they need. By working and learning together we can drive impact and change person to person – to transform everyone’s experience of homelessness in Scotland.

Availability

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Morning
Afternoon
Evening

Frequency and commitment details

Ideally we ask volunteers to commit to a minimum of one shift per week. Shifts are on average 4 hours, arranged in advance.

Restrictions

Experience required: Enthusiastic and pleasant manner with people Reasonable level of fitness Good communication and people skills Enjoy meeting and interacting with people Empathetic towards our client group Fully committed to Simon Community Scotland's Mission and core values Able to approach your volunteering role and tasks with a flexible and non judgemental attitude Experience not required as full training and induction will be given to the right candidates
Minimum age: 18

Support

Expenses paid: Yes
Expenses details: Out of pocket expenses paid

Last updated 3 months ago

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