In this week’s column we meet Margaret, one of our Volunteer Receptionists.
Margaret and her colleagues are the first person people see when visiting Citizens Advice Wokingham. They help to explain the process for clients needing our assistance and register them with us.
If you are interested in this or any other volunteer role please visit citizensadvicewokingham.org.uk – our next training sessions start in April and May.
How long have you volunteered here?
Altogether, I have volunteered here for five years. I lived in Portugal for 12 years and came back in 2010, so it would have been 2011 when I started, and I volunteered off and on from around then.
What made you want to volunteer here?
I’ve always volunteered, I’ve had that many volunteer jobs. Up until I was taken ill, I was doing virtually five days a week at different charities.
When I was ill, I had to sit for hours and days on end, and I decided that that could never happen again and that I would go out and work.
Did being ill make you want to help others?
Yes, one of the jobs that I had was a signposter from working at the surgeries. I helped people not only with their health but with other general problems. Perhaps I felt more experienced at telling them things because I’d gone through it. I felt I had enough to pass on, put it that way.
What does it mean to you to help people with Citizens Advice?
Oh, it’s wonderful. You feel like you’re giving back to people, with what they’ve helped you with over the years. I just feel that face-to-face talking with people works wonders. I think face to face is a lot better.
With reception work, you see somebody come through that door, and it’s surprising; they came to see advisers, but you can bet your life I got their life story sitting at that reception desk.
What do you think are the most pressing issues in the local community right now, and what can we do to stop them growing?
There is little respect, particularly to the elderly. I think it causes friction; I live in a retirement apartment and you hear all the time about the elderly being pushed aside. I also think there’s a lot of poverty.
Not ‘real’ poverty, but people are struggling now and I think it means that tempers are flaring a little bit more than perhaps they would have done a few years ago. Long term, I don’t know what the answer is. It seems to be getting worse.
What can we do to make Citizens Advice more visible to the public?
I think it is well advertised. They were even saying on television this morning about changing your fuel, gas and electricity and they said to go to your local Citizens Advice Bureau and they will help you.
I do think some people don’t realise how much you can be helped here, and it took a long time for people to realise that we were actually in this building!
Do you think that people know how varied the support and advice can be here?
No, I think it depends where people go to start the process. If they go and talk to the doctor, do they know about the help they can get here? Somebody’s health can suffer because of the worry, so if they went to the doctor and said: ‘This is why I’m all worked up and worried, because I can’t pay this and I can’t pay that’, I don’t know whether the doctor would know about the things that they could help with here.
People were saying to me: ‘They can’t help me about how to write this letter to somebody!’ and I said ‘Yes, they can! They can help with your bills and how to cope with it all.’
People didn’t seem to know; they thought you only came here if you had a very serious problem. With this sort of thing, it is often through speaking to the right person first-hand that they learn about the range of support.
You can get help and advice from your local Citizens Advice or visit www.citizensadvicewokingham.org.uk or visit Second Floor, Waterford House, Erfstadt Court, Wokingham RG40 2YF. Tel: 0300 330 1189. email: public@citizensadvicewokingham.org.uk
