Job overview

Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust recognise and value the importance volunteer support is to us and our patients.  You must be 18 years and over to apply for this role.

Please be aware we can only accept applications from people within the local area with appropriate right to work in the UK.  We cannot offer visa sponsorship for a volunteer role. 

As volunteer expenses are limited to a 20 mile round trip, we are unable to proceed with applications if you live to far from the location you are volunteering for.

Main duties of the job

Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust recognise and value the importance volunteer support is to us and our patients. Volunteering is a long term commitment (for example 9 – 12 months), and to bring continuity and stability for patients and staff, we ask volunteer to support by doing the same periods each week, which are discussed and agreed by the volunteer and volunteer supervisor.

At Community Roots we recognise the importance of working side-by-side with people who have experience of accessing mental health services, or caring for someone who does. Listening to and sharing our lived experiences of accessing care helps us to coproduce and co-deliver a wide range of preventative and recovery based health and wellbeing opportunities across Lancashire and South Cumbria.

If you have an interest in supporting others to prevent ill health or to support people in life beyond services, we have a range of opportunities available that ensure our Community Roots service is peer led:

• You may like to support our wide ranging curriculum by developing new sessions, gaining facilitation skills or supporting our practitioners to prepare and deliver training sessions.
• We also welcome applications to support learners in discovering our courses, completing enrolment forms, gathering feedback or supporting as a study buddy should someone feel apprehensive about attending our courses on their own or accessing us online

Working for our organisation

If you have a kind and welcoming nature with an interest in supporting people in your local community, we would welcome your application to work alongside our compassionate and caring team. We are currently looking for volunteers in Blackpool to support us at various community locations, such as Blackpool Central Library, the Gateway at Blackpool Football club and various community centres.

We will:

• Offer full training necessary for your role
• Support your development through a wide range of opportunities and projects
• Allocate you a personal mentor and support your volunteer experience through our regular groups and meetings

Volunteer duties may also include:

• Support colleagues in the co-delivery of recovery learning opportunities, enhancing offers from a lived experience perspective
• To prepare learning spaces and materials with resources provided by LSCFT staff
• Offer a warm welcome to visitors, partners and clients of the service and on board HARRI
• Engage with prospective learners to offer pastoral support
• Engage with locality Advisory Groups, Curriculum Development Groups and Evaluation Groups to co-develop the recovery and resilience service
• To support any learners who may become distressed during curriculum offers through peer support
• A Standard DBS will be needed for this role. (The possession of a criminal record does not necessarily disbar applicants from this role – you can talk in confidence to a member of the Community Roots team or Volunteer Service if you have any concerns about this.)
• To understand and speak with confidence about Community Roots & HARRI LSCFT across internal sites, community locations and in forums, engagement events
• To involve and enhance learner experience of the service offer through signposting and learning pathways
• To demonstrate clear boundaries when working with vulnerable people and escalate any issues beyond a volunteers role accountability.