Background

Simon Community Scotland is the largest provider of services to support people experiencing homelessness in Scotland. In Edinburgh the service is known as Streetwork. We know the importance of digital inclusion for the people we support. We have been developing models for many years that support people to be digitally included whatever their immediate and longer term needs. To date we have supported over 1,600 people to become digitally included and they have told us that this support has been life changing and in some cases life saving. We continue to be committed to ending digital exclusion for people experiencing homelessness. Every person we support has different digital needs and we want to address these in a variety of ways suited to the person. 

Role Purpose

We want to enhance our work in tackling digital exclusion by offering more opportunities to support people with their digital needs. We will do this by recruiting digital volunteers to be available in our community spaces. The digital volunteers will be on hand as specific times of the week, to offer person centred support on a one to one basis. Each person will have different needs and the volunteer will work to support and address these. 

Currently our venues include our Hub in Holyrood Road and our collaboration with the Hibernian Community Foundation at Easter Road. This takes place between 10am and 12pm on Wednesdays. In the future we are planning to relocate our much loved Streetreads library that will provide us with another opportunity to support with digital inclusion. 

Specific Tasks

Supporting the Digital Inclusion manager and staff to deliver a Digital Drop-In service.

Providing a warm and friendly welcome to the people we support.

Supporting and empowering people to complete a wide range of digital tasks, to access what is important to them, recognising that everyone we work with has different reasons for engaging with us.

Increasing people’s confidence in using technology. 

Be aware of threats and risks of being online and be able to discuss these with the supported person to address any fears they may have.

Promoting the use of digital solutions to meet the needs of people we support.

Record actions taken and celebrate successes.

To attend all volunteer training sessions.

Skills and Qualities Required

A warm and friendly personality.

Ability to inspire confidence and knowledge in the people we work with to make the most of their experience of the digital world.

Enjoy meeting. and have the ability to work with people in a way that takes into consideration their individual and cultural beliefs without expressing personal opinion.

Be able to approach your volunteering role and tasks with a flexible and non judgemental attitude.

Be empathetic towards people who receive our support.

Have good communication and people skills.

Experience of dealing with the public in person would be beneficial.

Commitment

We welcome volunteers to stay with us and continue to help us make a difference in people’s lives. 12 months would be the ideal minimum but we respect your time and commitment’s elsewhere.

For this role we ask for a minimum of 2 hours per week.

Our recruitment follows the Safer Recruitment process, which means giving consideration to safeguarding arrangements at every step. We will ask you to attend an informal interview, provide us with two references and attend our Mini IMPACT training – a shortened version of our dynamic 5-day staff programme. 

Support and Training

A full and comprehensive induction is provided for this role

In-role training is provided  as well as regular updates as we roll out new and exciting digital programmes - we value our volunteers and want to ensure you are equipped with the skills you need to fulfil your role

Simon Community Scotland together with Volunteer Scotland and Disclosure Scotland will support you with the required PVG process

What’s in it for me?

For as little as 2 hours per week you have the chance to meet new people and be part of an amazing team who are passionate about what they do.

Everything we do is about and for people: the people we support, our staff, our partners and everyone affected by homelessness. Each person involved brings their individual skills and creativity to the work we do. This is a chance for you to make a real difference to the most vulnerable people within your community and pick up essential skills that are valuable to employers. 
 

Our expectations

We need people who care about our client group and who are enthusiastic and able to respond flexibly to a role that can sometimes be challenging, but brings great rewards and satisfaction.

We need you to be fully committed to Simon Community Scotland’s Mission and Core Values and adhere to our policies/procedures and Code of Practice.

If you need any help completing this form please contact us: volunteering@simonscotland.