Why volunteer?
There are many benefits to volunteering with us:
- full training and support;
- the opportunity to develop new skills and knowledge (great for a CV);
- the chance to meet new people from a range of backgrounds and ages;
- different rewarding experiences every day;
- the knowledge you are helping local people to help themselves.
We’d love you to get involved in helping local people
We have 5 offices across the New Forest area and also run outreach services
We have a range of volunteer vacancies and in exchange for your time and skills, we offer training, support, and the chance to make a real difference. We also pay your expenses.
We run our New Recruit Training twice a year, in March and September, but you can apply at any time to volunteer with us. Some roles are short term and you can start quite quickly but for ‘advisor’ roles you would join our new recruit training.
Find out more
There are many different volunteer opportunities
My work at Citizens Advice New Forest
My name is Sandy and I started my training as a generalist adviser 18 years ago this month when my eldest child started school. I was in receipt of Income Support as a single parent but was not prepared to sit and watch daytime TV all day so I looked for a volunteer role in the community. Things were very different then; all case notes were written by hand and we had all information in large ring binders to share with clients. There was no telephone advice so we had a lot more people dropping in.
Of course, the main aim of the work and what attracted me to it then and keeps me interested all these years later remains the same – to help people and support those fighting social injustice. Every session has a different mix of clients, you never know what is going to walk through the door.
Knowing you have helped someone, improved their situation and on occasion made a financial gain on their behalf is most rewarding. It is also very satisfying to gain new skills and work with a lovely group of people that are of the same mindset with an interest in supporting local people.
It can be frustrating on occasion to give some advice and not know the outcome but this is far outweighed by the comforting knowledge that someone has benefited from my input and support and that those who struggle to manage their issues have somewhere to go for appropriate support.