By Marc Leverton

Volunteering with homeless people is a great chance to get useful work experience and make a real difference to people's lives.

It can, of course, be a demanding experience, since there's often more to people's difficulties than being without a roof over their heads. Few people choose to become homeless; it is a circumstance that tends to arise because of things like family breakdown, mental health problems or drug and alcohol abuse. But, if you're up for the challenge, you'll get to meet and help some amazing people.

Volunteering at a hostel

There are often opportunities at local night shelters  –  places where homeless people can stay on a short-term basis. These vary in number and size from city to city.

Kevin Edwards is a Night Team Leader at Julian House, a hostel for homeless people in Bath. "There's no such thing as a typical homeless person," he explains. "We have people from age 18 to 63, from all kinds of social backgrounds."

At the hostel duties for volunteers are varied. '"Volunteers do things such as heat up meals, clear up and make teas and coffees," says Kevin. "We try to allow people to do things that they like."

Kevin has worked in the sector for over six years and has some sound advice: "For someone who was thinking of getting into this kind of work I'd say come and volunteer and see how you find it. We also encourage volunteers to stay on after their shift and get to know the clients."

The hostel offers a full training programme for volunteers, ranging from health and safety to dealing with violence and aggression.

Crisis

Crisis, a national homelessness charity, has many volunteering opportunities. Currently most are based in London but they also have a Newcastle branch opening soon.

Andre Carvalho is a Volunteer Manager for Crisis. "Our volunteers have to be aged 18 or over and we have about 20 kind of roles in all," he says. "Crisis Open Christmas is our main event and that has about 6,500 volunteers. People come from all over the UK, we even have people who come from Dublin."

There's a huge range of opportunities available. "For the Christmas event the whole thing is run by volunteers," Andre explains. "We look for people for general volunteering such as door duty, security, stewarding, feeding the guests or cleaning."

Crisis also has specialised roles like dentists and tutors. For the Christmas event volunteers must commit to a minimum of two days, and Crisis can find reduced price accommodation for people at local hotels if required.

If giving up part of your Christmas doesn't appeal then you can still get involved. "Outside of Christmas week we have about 2,500 volunteers working with us in any normal week," Andre says. "We have a mixture of fundraising roles, communications, administration or finance. Most of our opportunities run out of our offices in Liverpool Street in London but these roles will shortly be replicated at our new service in Newcastle."

Depending on the role, Crisis will ask a volunteer to commit to anything from a couple of weeks to several months.

The Big Issue

The Big Issue is a magazine sold by homeless people; they buy the magazine for 70p and re-sell it for £1.50. The profit they make is theirs to keep and most of the people selling the magazine have no other source of income.

There are five editions across the UK: South East, South West, Wales, North and Scotland. In most towns there is an office which sells magazines to homeless people and it is within these offices that most volunteering opportunities can be found.

Greg Walker, a Regional Sales Manager for The Big Issue, explains that volunteering had a key role in his own career path: "It all started from talking to Big Issue vendors on the streets; I was really inspired by what they were doing. I started as a Volunteer, became a Relief Manager, then a full-time Project Manager and now Regional Sales Manager."

So what experience did he have before working for The Big Issue? "I was a face-to-face fundraiser and I also did a short prison sentence. To The Big Issue's credit they didn't hold that against me."

And what advice would he have for someone looking to work in this sector? "Be patient and put your heart into it. Don't expect too much too quickly, change can be slow sometimes when you are working with people. Volunteers are incredibly valuable to an organisation like ours but if it isn't giving you what you want then shop around. There are lots of opportunities out there and it is best all around if you are happy with what you are doing."

Moving on from volunteering

If the homelessness sector is an area that appeals to you then there are many avenues to go down.

Project workers and support workers are the kinds of roles where you are working with clients face to face and working through their problems. If you have good organisational skills and some relevant experience, a management position might be suitable – for example, a hostel manager, volunteer manager or project manager.

Either way, volunteering can be an excellent way to start.

Search the do-it.org.uk database for homeless and housing opportunities in your local area.

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