Why I love volunteering

I volunteer at the Legal Advice Centre every Saturday, providing legal advice to local residents from the community who do not have the means to pay for it, alongside representing those clients at tribunals. I predominantly deal with welfare benefits issues. My clients are generally heavily distressed due to the financial hardships they undergo, making it difficult for them to make ends meet. I find that in providing them with an avenue to deal with some of the financial pressures they face and seeing the relief they experience is very satisfying for me.

Volunteering for me however, does not end there. There are a wealth of projects and skills to be gained if you take the opportunity. Recently, I have been allocated to a team responsible for ‘thinking outside the box’ to proactively assist our clients to prevent them from getting into debt or missing payments that fall due, as limited English and absent-mindedness are common contributory factors to causing arrears for our clients. As a result, we are currently creating an app to assist our clients to identify and mitigate risks in the early stages by sending automatic reminders and having a translator function since many of our clients do not speak English as a first language.

– Written by Vishali Bij, ELBA Education Works EaGLE