Friendly Group Volunteers - Corringham

Come and join the fun …. We need friendly, outgoing and welcoming individuals to assist at our local community group meet ups.  Our Friendly Group Volunteers are a fantastic support to our members, but you can also benefit immensely by gaining new friendships and share this wonderful experience together.

We would like you to come along to the group meetings each month and support the members by chatting to them, making them cups of tea/coffee, assisting in planned activities, helping to guide them in and out of the building at the beginning and the end of the meetings, to and from the toilet if required and accompany the group when they go out on the social outings. Guiding the deafblind members will be required and full training is provided. You may also be required to push a member’s wheelchair.

Having sight and hearing loss can at times be isolating and lonely, however getting people together to enjoy each others company will ensure our members don’t face this. A majority of our members at the group will communicate with clear speech, or may have other communication methods. Our members really enjoy getting together having a good chat about all sorts of things over a cup of tea and a biscuit; they also like to invite speakers to come along to the meetings to provide them with helpful advice and information across a wide range of subjects. From time to time our members will arrange a trip out together usually 2-3 social outings each year to places of interest.

Skills

The role will suit people who;

• Are confident with a warm, friendly and engaging manner
• Can empathise with the pressures on deafblind people, their families and understand the need for support
• Have a sense of humour
• Are self-motivated with an ability to work on own initiative
• Have excellent communication and organisational skills with the ability to work on own initiative
• Are reliable, confident and responsible individual, with enthusiasm and effective interpersonal skill.
• Are able to demonstrate sensitivity and understanding of the needs of people who have sight and hearing loss
• Have a willingness to learn communication and guiding techniques to meet the needs of the deafblind person / people
• Have experience in organising group activities and session planning
• Are confident in handling cash and logging information