Support people on their journeys out of homelessness.
As a volunteer in one of our Skylight centres, you’ll be making a real difference to the lives of people experiencing homelessness. You will be working directly with people as they find ways out of homelessness, in collaboration with other volunteers and Crisis staff.
Every person who turns to us for support is treated as an individual, with dignity and respect. We prioritise supporting people who find it difficult to access or are excluded from services that should be there to prevent or end their homelessness.
You could be helping members access benefits, find employment or settle into a new home. Supporting a wide range of individuals with different needs, you will develop a strong understanding of some of the pressures and barriers that force people into homelessness, whilst building individuals skills, confidence, and resilience to enable them to end their homelessness.
All our Skylight volunteers are provided with all the training and support needed to be able to form relationships with members, based on equality and trust.
Volunteers can support our members at local Skylight centres or in the local community and can work one-to-one or in groups. In addition, volunteers help with the smooth running of our office so that our members receive the best possible service.
We have a range of roles on offer including:
Volunteers add huge value to teams who are supporting members directly. They bring empathy, compassion and a wide range of skills, experience, and knowledge.
We want you to have a great experience with us at Crisis - so below we have answered some of our most asked questions about volunteering in our local services.
If you have a question and can't find the answer, please do reach out to us at Crisis Volunteering or you can find the details for the Volunteer and Involvement Lead on our Skylight volunteering pages.
We want you to have a great experience with us at Crisis - so below we have answered some of our most asked questions about volunteering in our local services.
If you have a question and can't find the answer, please do reach out to us at Crisis Volunteering or you can find the details for the Volunteer and Involvement Lead on our Skylight volunteering pages.
Most of our roles don’t require any qualifications or experience. All you need is empathy and a desire to end homelessness. Some roles will require specific experience to provide specialist support to our members. This will be specified in the role advert.
We recommend you read the role advert carefully before applying for a role and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your Volunteer and Involvement Lead.
We want you to have a great time volunteering for us. We understand that whilst volunteering in our services can be incredibly rewarding, there are times it can bring challenges and be emotionally demanding. To ensure you have all the support you need to remain emotionally well, as well as your Volunteer Supervisor and Volunteer and Involvement Lead, you will also have access to:
As part of our recruitment, we will ask you to meet with us, either virtually or in person. We see this meeting as a conversation where we can find out more about you and your suitability for the volunteer role while also giving you the chance to find out more about us and whether the role is right for you. We want you to feel relaxed and comfortable when we meet, and we will share with you some guidance notes to help with this.
Each of our roles has a clear training plan in place to ensure you have everything you need to feel confident and equipped for the role. All volunteers in our services will attend a welcome session with the Volunteer and Involvement Lead and role specific training with either the Volunteer and Involvement Lead or the Volunteer Supervisor. In addition, you will need to complete e-learning on data protection, safeguarding, equality, diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias and how we work with members. This is to ensure that we are keeping everyone safe, creating an inclusive service and protecting everyone’s dignity. Depending on your role, there may also be other essential learning you need to complete before starting.
Your Volunteer and Involvement Lead will support you to complete this learning. Once you have started in role, if your role involves interacting with our members, you will also be asked to attend ‘boundaries’ and ‘managing important conversations’ workshops.
We know many of our volunteers are keen to continue learning whilst in role, so once you have started in role there will be a suite of learning topics available for you to access at your convenience through our learning platform. There will also be opportunities for less formal learning through your Skylight.
Many of the roles in our services will require a disclosure check, (either basic or enhanced) - you will be able to see this on the role description. If the role does, we use a digital system to manage this and we will request and pay for it (where payment is needed).
If you have a criminal conviction, this does not automatically mean you cannot volunteer for us. However, we may need to ask you more about the conviction to be able to do a risk assessment and decide if you can or cannot volunteer.
The voice and expertise of people with lived experience is vital in ensuring our service is truly meeting the needs of our members. We encourage anyone with lived experience to apply for our volunteer roles.
We also involve members and people with lived experience of homelessness in opportunities across the organisation including our Experts by Experience panel. For more details, please contact the Member Involvement Team or speak to your local Volunteer and Involvement Lead.
You can claim any reasonable out of pocket expenses for travel or lunch if you volunteer for over five hours. Your Volunteer and Involvement Lead will explain to you our expenses policy, including any limits and how to claim. We use a digital system called Concur to manage volunteer expenses which allows you to store receipts, log journeys and track your payment.
Detailed references can be provided at your volunteer supervisor’s discretion. Otherwise, a start and finish date can be provided for current volunteers or if your volunteering end date is within two years of the reference request.
