Mercy Law Resource Centre is currently remodelling our volunteer befriender programme and are now looking to recruit a Volunteer Befriender Co-ordinator.
Our volunteer befriender programme offers an opportunity to engage and participate as active citizens and to support those who are marginalised and vulnerable. It specifically seeks to capitalise on the life experience of community-minded individuals and provide them with an opportunity to give back to the community and engage with different strands of society.
To date, the befriender programme has very positively impacted on our clients lives. Volunteer befrienders are an essential complementary support to our clients, and assist our clients with non-legal issues. Our clients are vulnerable individuals who are homeless and who are at risk of homelessness. They face several barriers to accessing their housing entitlements including for example literacy difficulties, mental and physical health issues, and discrimination. To date our befrienders have provided invaluable practical and emotional support to our clients on non-legal issues.
Testimonial of Michael who has been a part of the Befriender programme for four years:
“If you are a person who wants to give some help, like charitable work, and want to provide someone with some friendship and charitable guidance then you are suited to the befriending programme. MLRC are an excellent organisation who are efficient and pleasant to deal with at all times. MLRC has provided guidance to me as a befriender when needed and they are doing a much needed job for which there is real need. Even, as a befriender if you provide an hour a week, you can be doing a lot of good and make a tremendous difference to someone’s life. You could be assisting a range of individuals, from someone who suffers with low levels of literacy, individuals from abroad, those with financial difficulties, or just someone who needs support and a friend.”
Befriendee Experience of the Programme:
“I went to Mercy Law and found them extremely helpful, especially their Befriending service. My Befriender has absolutely helped over and above the call of duty with me. She has been there every step of the way from when I was at the refuge to where I am now and I don’t know what I would have done without her. My befriender befriended and helped me out unconditionally, she was an absolute God send and bar none she is a saint and more than a friend now.
Without the whole Mercy Law Resource Centre I wouldn’t have got this far as I was at breaking point. The way they helped with all the legal issues and explained what I could do, as I couldn’t have got through it without them. They helped me out of the mire that I didn’t understand and the mine field of legal jargon. I can’t speak highly about what the Mercy Law Resource Centre does.”
Full details of the role together with further information about MLRC and our Befriender Service is available here. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 4 June 2019.
