Volunteer Advocate (Children and Young People)

Barnardo’s is committed to providing ‘Better Outcomes for More Children’. Our children’s services volunteers help the charity to deliver essential services in local communities, providing support to over 300,000 children, young people and their families. This role provides a great opportunity to join our fantastic children’s services and help make a real difference.

Barnardo’s Advocates empower children and young people experiencing the care system, to make sure that their rights are respected and their voices are heard at all times. Advocates represent the views, wishes and needs of young people, helping them to navigate the social care system at a very challenging and often scary time for the young person. 

The Cornwall Advocacy Service is commissioned by Cornwall Council to provide advocacy support for children and young people in a range of different situations but primarily those who are in the care of the Local Authority from the age of 6 to 18 years (up to 25 years, where appropriate) or when they are involved in child protection proceedings. Advocacy is about providing the opportunity to children to share their thoughts and feelings with an Advocate, so the Advocate may represent these views at meetings where decisions are being made about them by professionals. We are looking for approachable and confident people, able to listen to young people, supporting them to share their views. You will need to be a great communicator and be able to encourage young people to engage with the process. We visit children in school to write down their views in preparation for their meeting. You will need to be able to take notes whilst talking to a young person and have a good level of IT skills (including Word and Outlook) to type up, save and send documents to your project worker. You, as Volunteer Advocate, will then attend the meeting to read these views, either with the young person or on their behalf. Meetings are attended by family members, carers and professionals, and are held either in person at various venues or virtually on Microsoft Teams. Planning and recording of work will be supported by the project workers who you will need to liaise with closely for each piece of advocacy undertaken. Your project worker will be your supervisor and will attend one to one and/or group supervision sessions. Our Advocates offer an inclusive service, supporting unaccompanied asylum seekers, disabled children and young people and those who may have additional needs (including behaviour, communication and learning difficulties).

We are looking for volunteers who are not only passionate about supporting young people, but also have the emotional resilience to do so through some tough circumstances. We offer regular supervision in group and one-to-one sessions, and you will be a valued member of our team.

We would hope that our volunteers can offer a minimum commitment of 18 months following training to provide continuity of support, as the best results are seen when a volunteer can commit to a reasonably long period in this role, with sufficient availability Mon-Fri within school hours. The ability and willingness to travel within a reasonable distance for the service area is needed, as well as appropriate insurance whilst driving to school visits for your volunteering role. Our role-specific training programme prepares you for this vital role and includes in-person learning and buddying live cases with experienced Advocates. As part of your training, you will also attend other face-to-face and/or virtual training sessions. On successful completion of all aspects of the training programme, this role will involve unsupervised contact with children and young people, so an enhanced criminal record check is required.

Barnardo's fosters an environment that is inclusive as well as diverse for our staff and our volunteers, where our people can be themselves and be valued so that we reflect the children and young people we serve. All applicants, including those from the global majority and disabled applicants, are encouraged to apply (and being particularly under-represented in this role, we would welcome applications from men). We would also be especially pleased to receive applications from volunteers in PL postcodes in Cornwall, and from volunteers living in East Cornwall.

Some previous experience working with children and young people is important to this professional role. We are looking for approachable and confident people, who can listen to young people, support them to make their voice heard and guide them through the social care system. You will need to be a great communicator and able to support and encourage young people to engage with professionals.

To find out more and to apply: Advocate (Supporting 6-25 year olds, Cornwall) | Barnardo's Volunteering (barnardos.org.uk)

If you’d like to find out more and the role and our service, please sign up for our online Eventbrite Taster Session, Wednesday 21st August 2024, 12pm to 1pm: Cornwall Advocacy & Independent Visitor Service Volunteer Taster Session Tickets, Wed, Aug 21, 2024 at 12:00 PM | Eventbrite