Volunteer Peer supporter with lived experience of addiction

What will you be doing?

Peer supporters are the cornerstone of our charity: their early intervention offers clients a supported pathway into counselling – and helps us assess who might most benefit from and stay the course throughout a programme of counselling. A peer supporter relationship will last anything from two to six weeks and is also offered at the end of counselling to help the client with the next part of their journey.  The role will involve taking the initial assessment with a client. Quickly being able to gain trust is essential, so experience dealing with vulnerable clients who have experienced trauma is important. The peer supporter will also have their own clients who they will guide towards a recovery pathway and be part of the review to see if the client is ready for counselling. Where necessary, they will signpost clients to other services. Eventually, the role will develop into supporting group sessions and reaching out more into the community. Peers supporters will need a DBS check, unless they hold one on the Update Service, and, as well as mandatory training, there will be an in-house peer support coaching and charity orientation sessions. Key duties Duties include:

Take the client's initial assessment when they join the charity and allocate a peer supporter to work with them. Meet locally (office, rooms, café, park) or have a telephone conversation with a client who’s struggling with addiction and asked for our help. Hold up to four sessions with a single client and no more than three clients at any one time. Explain and role-model the benefits of 12-step recovery and how it worked for you; and how the charity can support the client. Sound-out if the client is ready and willing to do counselling and advise accordingly via our triage process. Attend our community events and be on hand to offer an ear to those who want to discuss recovery.  Support group sessions with our clients who are in recovery - this will be underway during 2024-25

What are we looking for?

Qualifications and experience At least three year's lived experience of addiction and experience offering peer support to vulnerable clients. Ideally having worked with addicts in some capacity. Key skills

Able to open up conversations with people they don’t know and be able to listen. Gaining trust Establishing and keeping healthy boundaries Open about their own recovery story. Good interpersonal and communication skills Flexible Ability to work unsupervised Confidence working with people from diverse backgrounds

What difference will you make?

Feedback from clients tells us that having initial contact with someone who understands addiction makes them feel more welcome to our charity. We cannot underestimate how important this is. We believe lived experience of addiction helps potential clients make the leap to finding recovery and receiving counselling and go on to lead healthy and productive lives