What can I do to get help?

All excellent advice Granny activist. But it's a big ask to volunteer with no incentives whatsoever if they are not getting paid. What about paying expenses like petrol or train fares and or free tea coffee and sandwiches.

Granny activist - make yourself known to secondary schools where they do the Duke of Edinburgh Award because voluntary work is integral to this and you may get a rolling programme of young volunteers from one year to the next. You would also be doing your bit for intergenerational self-help.

Well it’s the way you sell it.
I don’t mean to be unkind but I certainly wouldn’t want to do what you do particularly for free.

I wonder if you can hook up with local colleges and make yourself a voluntary placement ? So pick a course that teaches something involving vulnerable people, social work, counselling etc so they can write about their experience ? Or contact local job centre and offer work experience? Lots young people need work experience to get jobs , so showing themselves to be reliable , show up set time, be responsible, patient, with social skills etc is gold to them !!! Good luck !!

There is a website called 'Freegle' which is basically a 'give and wanted for free' website, but they also have what they call a 'volunteeer round-up' page which advertises for volunteers. Also students are always willing to help need causes so ask at your local uni or college.

Unfortunately the bureaucracy involved, though necessary, is enough to put people off - (CRB checks, etc.) Also, people are also wary of getting drawn in to giving more time than they intended and some are just wary of being involved with homeless people generally.
Perhaps you could find a way for people to help without being face to face with homeless people - office work, investigative work only for example, you might do better. Just a thought!
Also have you tried appealing to 6th formers and students? They are usually so good with technology they can achieve search results etc quickly - and it would look good on their CV's. Just another thought! Good luck.

Stress flexibility in commitment ( if possible). In my experience there are many people who feel they can’t offer their services because they want to be free to help with grandchildren or go on holiday ( not so much at the moment) or just out for the day if the weather is good and are consequently wary of offering even a half day a week whereas they would willingly do so many hours a month at times to suit them.

Devon is probably too far away from me here in North Derbyshire, but this was my line of work before I retired, I worked in Mental helath rehab for a large London based charity who had Housing association status, and Project houses throughout the Uk. Although im physically disabled now, I would have loved to have helped out in some way.

Check your local council website to see what they have about volunteering. Mine (Richmond Upon Thames) has a section on volunteers/volunteering. www.richmond.gov.uk/services/voluntary_and_community_sector/volunteering_richmond - I've given the link as it might give you some ideas.

Otherwise, this google link, www.google.com/search?q=volunteer+groups&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-GB:IE-Address&ie=&oe=#spf=1599817123464, again presents several options.

You may have gone down these routes but just in case...

How about contacting local church leaders. They could put the word out for volunteers.

I think people might be wary of taking on a huge amount of responsibility and many will be fearful of your client group, mainly through ignorance I suspect. I agree with those people who have suggested asking for specific tasks - form filling, organising, listening. Can you offer some buddying/virtual hand holding for new volunteers so that they don't feel left to get on with it? Offer references for volunteers once they've completed 6 months (useful for those looking for work or who might see this as a way of a accessing an educational course). Have you thought about social care/social work students? Forgive me if you've already tried all of this! It sounds as if you do a fantastic job but you are close to burnout. Any contacts in the local council who can advise?

Yes of course, obviously students would need training support and supervision.

Ten years of austerity, the devastation of public services and social housing has increased the need you’re trying to meet grannya. The hope was charities would pick up many of the support services. L.A’s funded many such charities but can no longer do that. Apologies you know all this. The work you’re doing is essential. I’ve pmd you

Charleygirl5 they would have to have DBS checks and some training before having access to confidential information, so I suspect that would be off-putting unless the person really was prepared to commit to at least an initial period of about six months.

There may be people on GN living near you who would be happy to dip their toe in the water eg a one/off to see if they like the work.

There is a large untapped source out there of which I am one!

Lucca I'm in Devon.

Iam64 I'm sure there is a fear factor, but it's more to do with the client group than the virus. The problem with taking a Uni student (we have been offered) is that it creates more work than it relieves as the level of supervision, training and feedback that's required is greater than I have time for. If I had a couple of other caseworkers it would be doable and beneficial for us, but at the moment it's too great a commitment.

Grannyactivist ; what an amazing person you sound and you are working so hard for the homeless. You mentioned you do all your volunteering for free and your colleague also does the same.

I will just make a suggestion and you may not want to do it but have you thought of taking on one paid employed helper who can do all the casework forms. The D.W.P. forms are difficult to do and having an experienced person for that casework would help you. I make that suggestion as I also done much voluntary work and one place where I helped eventually took on one paid help to assist with work , as donations and some funding was coming in this was able to go towards paying the salary of the employed new person
and things worked out very well and much of the work load was eased.

Jaxjacky Yes, we had our 15 minutes of fame on the radio where the chair of our management board, who is a very skilled communicator, was able to give a brilliant representation of the work we do and spoke of how much we are in need of additional caseworkers.

kittylester we get referrals from our local surgery so they stock all our materials as a matter of course, as do the library, the local churches and both the community cafes.

GreenGran78 we have a small group of wonderful volunteers who will do specific tasks that don't need any particular skill other than being warm and friendly, but what I need is someone who can help with the 'professional' side of things.

Every day I am in discussion with referrers; this might be the police or PCSOs, the local surgery, the Salvation Army, the Community Mental Health Team, the Foodbank manager, the council or members of the public. The client may have mental or physical health problems, have a learning difficulty or be autistic, have a drug or alcohol dependence, be illiterate or highly educated. The situation may be that the client needs help with accessing ESA, a PIP award, needs accommodation, is facing eviction, is escaping domestic abuse, is in debt or has carers responsibilities.

There are many other scenarios that come to mind, but you get the point. We need someone who can be trained to work out what the client wants and then to prioritise his/her needs and take the appropriate action. So it needs to be someone who is comfortable with advocacy work, understands the DWP systems (that seem to change every day at the moment) is unfazed by angry clients and harassed housing officers, can keep confidences and manage client expectations (our newer clients are often distressed that the benefit system isn't as generous as they anticipated). It's a tall order for a volunteer.

Could you get an interview with a local radio station? They could run a story and then an appeal, maybe.

I have sent a PM grannyactivist.

I wonder if some of the difficulties relate to the pandemic and fears of coming into contact with the disease. Many regular volunteers are in the older age group so extra fearful. Do you have a college or Uni nearby with training for carers/social workers etc ? I expect you've tried everything granny activist given your long experience but younger people who want to get onto such courses may be prepared to volunteer to gain experience

May I ask which part of the country you are in ?

Thanks for your responses and your helpful ideas.
NotSpaghetti thanks - our local group keep a stock of our leaflets in and are very supportive, but have been unable to find us volunteers.

Kamiso We actually take referrals from the Salvation Army and our local W.I. (I'm a member) has hosted a talk and fundraised for us and a couple of members have kindly become 'befrienders'.

Septimia Yes, we do this from time to time and that's sort of how we got our last caseworker, but she found the job very stressful and also had ongoing family responsibilities so she had to withdraw.

Illte Caseworkers need to be DBS checked before they can have access to confidential information. The form filling is actually one job I would love to pass on, but have you seen the PIP form? It's 37 pages of detailed information that's required, plus additional supporting documentation from GPs, hospitals, social workers et al., so you're right about the training being a factor.

We are very careful not to expose our clients (we live in a small town), but some of them want to tell their stories and our local newspaper is really supportive and happy to publish articles about the work we do, so people are aware of what some of the positive outcomes are and have read the lovely success stories of people who are no longer homeless. The local police have written very positively about our work and the District Councillors very publicly endorse what we do. I have already spoken at a great many local gatherings and the outcome is that we are given a great many unsolicited donations and people are always offering to fundraise for us, but no-one seems to want to actually work with people.

shandi6570 Every church and our two very active local community Facebook pages have included our plea and have been shared by dozens of people, so I doubt that there's a single person in town who doesn't know that we need additional caseworkers. It was even the headline the newspaper advertised on its boards outside the local shops this week. (See photo)

At least your posts are telling me that I haven't missed something that's glaringly obvious - I just don't know what else to try. If we were in different times I would hold a meeting and ask a few of our past clients to take part, but obviously that's not possible at the moment and won't be for the foreseeable future. I suppose part of the problem is that it's actually a real job, but one of the reasons for our continuing success is that the people we work with have often been let down by paid workers and they trust us because we're not doing it for payment.

I was also going to suggest local notice boards, GA. Our village has 3 and I used to often put AS ones in them. Also, our library has a specific board for charities as opposed to just local notices.

I've also trailed round all the local GP surgeries and smiled sweetly at the receptionists, along with libraries in other villages and local paper shops etc.

Have a super holiday and I hope you find help soon.

I agree with one off, small, short commitments, so people don’t feel ‘trapped’ all day. Could you get get a local radio station involved and do an interview detailing some of these tasks that need assistance? Any local ‘celebs’ that could be approached? Local colleges as part of their courses? Local authorise sometimes have an in house volunteering scheme for employees.

I think that the ‘specific task’ is the way to go. People are nervous of jumping in blindly. They are afraid that they will be unable to cope/find that it takes up too much time/they don’t take to the people they are working with, etc.
I know that I would be more inclined to accept a request to help as a ‘one-off,’ especially if I had a particular talent which is needed. Even if they didn’t follow through by becoming a regular helper you will have had help for a few hours.
Good luck with your search, and thank you for all that you do.