Early Help Volunteer

Early help is provided to children, young people and families who are:

-struggling

-in need of additional support

-at a higher than average risk of experiencing problems

Early help services aim to prevent or resolve issues before they become more serious and require specialist support.

The Isle of Wight Children and Young People’s Strategic partnership recognises that the best outcomes are achieved when a combination of services work together. This is to ensure that the whole family are able to work towards better life chances of their children.

We are currently recruiting volunteers to support families at Early Help level.

For families to access one of our volunteers they will need to come through the Supporting Families referral pathway.

Some examples of what our volunteers can help with:

· Completing forms and applications, such as applications for housing, Universal Credit, Disability Allowance, PIP and other benefits.

Drafting CV’s and job applications.

· Budgeting, managing the home.

· Attending and/or organising appointments, medical or other.

· Taking children out to the park, providing a little respite.

· Shopping.

· Attend activities with parents and children, such as stay and play, library, clinic.

· Moral support, someone to talk to.

· Organisation – decluttering, cleaning, prioritising.

· Cooking, nutrition.

Our Volunteers can help in any way that a friend can, they will work with a family for up to 12 weeks or 12 sessions at a time, ad hoc requests are also considered.

How often support is provided is decided by the volunteer, the family, and the lead professional (professional working with the family as a point of contact). The volunteer is included on the families plan and will attend the TAF (team around the family) meeting.

Our volunteers complete a short summary of what tasks are being completed during the period of support and a closing statement.

Our volunteers will receive training, a DBS check, an allowance for up to £15 to claim for activities costs, peer support sessions and monthly catch ups with the Volunteer Co-ordinator.

Our volunteers make a difference to a family.

If you, or if you know of someone that is interested in becoming a volunteer, an application can be made from the following link (please state within the application this is for Early Help). https://wightnet.iow.gov.uk/jobvacancies/jobvacancydetails.aspx?jobId=4043

Skills

Volunteers will be supporting vulnerable young people and their families so will receive extensive training, including Safeguarding and Data Protection Awareness.

You may be a student, have your own lived experiences or be enjoying your retirement.

You will have access to many courses on our Learning Hub.

Every volunteer has their own unique skill set so please do apply if you want to make a difference to vulnerable younger people living on our island.

Please respond directly to volunteers@iow.gov.uk/earlyhelpvolunteersiow.gov.uk