RNID Near You volunteer, Brighton & West Sussex at Rnid

What does the opportunity involve doing?

What you’ll be doing

RNID Near You volunteers do 6 main activities to help us make life fully inclusive for deaf people and people with hearing loss and tinnitus.

You don’t have to do all 6 of these activities – you can pick the activities you find most interesting and match your skills and experience.

1. Maintaining hearing aids
Our volunteers support hearing aid users by cleaning their hearing aids and replacing batteries and tubing. They provide tips for getting the most from hearing aids.

2. Helping people check their hearing
Our volunteers help people take the RNID online hearing check. They take people through the steps in person on a digital tablet.

3. Informing people
Our volunteers help deaf people and those with hearing loss and tinnitus find information about:

- getting used to hearing aids and getting the most out of them
- using technology and assistive devices
- applying for benefits

4. Meeting and greeting
Our in-person volunteers welcome people to our services. They have a chat with visitors, find out what service or information they’re looking for and direct them to the right place.

5. Finding supporters and donors
Our volunteers do important work to help us find people who can support our services and people who can donate money to help us fund our services.

6. Administration
Our volunteers help us run our services by doing administrative tasks.
- finding employment
- finding support with employment
- and many other important topics.

What induction, training and support is offered?

Training and support:

You’ll receive a full induction and training so you feel prepared and confident before your first session. You’ll also get our volunteering handbook and volunteering policies to refer to.

You’ll be assigned a supervisor who will provide ongoing support and we’ll also introduce you to our community of volunteers.

https://rnid.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer-with-us/support-and-training/

1. Don’t worry if you don’t have experience maintaining hearing aids. We give our volunteers full training so they’re knowledgeable and confident setting up and using the hearing aid maintenance kit.

2. You’ll be given full training so you know what information to give to people and what other organisations or resources might be helpful.

3. If you’re interested in helping us find supporters and donors, we’ll give you full training so you feel confident and prepared.

What skills or qualities are needed?

Age:
You must be at least 18 years old.

Checks:
We have a legal duty to make sure that all volunteers working either in person and/ or online with children and adults at risk on a regular basis are suitable.

In addition to requesting references, we’ll carry out appropriate pre-volunteering checks in-line with regulations such as Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks in England and Wales, and equivalents in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Travel:
You may need to be able to travel by car or public transport to different places. We’ll reimburse your expenses, according to the RNID Travel and Subsistence Policy.

Availability:
Weekdays (usually between 9am and 5pm)

What you’ll get in return
As a volunteer, you will:

- make a real difference to the people you support
- help us run this important service
- receive training and learn new skills
- meet people in different situations
- raise awareness of deafness in the community
- have reasonable, out-of-pocket and pre-approved travel expenses repaid.