Children & Young People (CYP) Volunteer
Volunteers have always been and remain at the very heart of Cruse, supporting thousands of bereaved people every year and playing an incredible role enriching so many aspects of our organisation. Supporting children and young people who have been bereaved is a key part of our organisation, enabling us to provide timely bereavement support when a child and young person is experiencing grief and its impact.
The Crust CYP bereavement service offers bereavement support to children and young people aged between 7 –25 years across England, Wales and Northern Ireland who are affected by the death of someone important to them. We work with CYP remotely through telephone, video and in person. Sometimes we also support children and young people in groups, in schools, communities and at family events.
About the role:
You must be able to offer a person centred, empathetic and non-judgemental approach to supporting all our children and young people, in accordance with Cruse Bereavement Support’s policies and procedures.
This role is generally home-based so you must have a quiet and private space to work in but sometimes you may also be required to travel to schools or other community locations to support children and young people.
You must be open and confident to communicating with a diverse range of children, comfortable talking about death and grief and at ease supporting families who may be highly emotional. At times, the work may be distressing but the reward of being able to make a difference to a child or young person is one of our volunteers’ main motivations for doing this role.
What you will be doing:
Providing emotional and practical support to parents/carers
Providing confidential emotional and practical support to children and young people
Using child centred, age-appropriate resources to help CYP understand the death which has occurred help them to manage their emotions moving forwards
Maintaining accurate records on our CRM system, complying with organisational requirements
Ensure the safety and wellbeing of every CYP by responding to any safeguarding concerns with appropriated action or support, according to Cruse’s safeguarding policies and procedures
There may also be opportunities to take part in further training to allow you to work with groups of CYP, professional/community groups supporting bereaved CYP
Skills and experience:
We are looking for someone with the following attributes and skills to apply for this role.
Empathetic and warm with excellent listening skills
Outstanding communication skills with children and young people
Commitment towards maintaining confidentiality
Awareness of the importance of maintaining strong professional boundaries
Personal resilience and proactive approach to self-care
Open to receiving feedback from supervisor
Self-reflective approach to learning
Strong verbal communication skills
Ability to clearly and compassionately communicate with children and young people and their families, over the telephone, on a video or in person
Promote equity, diversity and inclusion through willingness to work a diverse range of children and young people of different ages, abilities, backgrounds and cultural beliefs
Who you’ll be volunteering alongside:
You will be volunteering as part of a thriving community of CYP volunteers who are passionate about supporting bereaved CYP and continuously developing their practice.
You will be well supported by your supervisor, regional team of staff and volunteers and each other.
IT considerations
You will need a stable broadband connection
The use of a laptop or computer for conducting online bereavement sessions, attending meetings and accessing Cruse internal systems such as recording confidential contact records
Assess to a stable telephone connection for conducting bereavement support on the telephone
Time commitment: We ask for commitment to support 2 clients per week and to volunteering for Cruse for at least 2 years. We also ask that you commit to attending a regular 2-hour group supervision session.
Expenses reimbursed: Travel expenses are reimbursed.
Training provided: Before you can begin volunteering as a CYP bereavement volunteer, you will need to complete our Bereavement Support Foundation course for working with Children and Young People. The training is free and requires you to complete a portfolio of work.
Training takes 32 hours over 6 days and includes safeguarding training. Whilst undertaking the CYP Bereavement Support Foundation Course; you are required to complete portfolio work each week in your own time, to be submitted weekly for marking.
Please be aware that you will be required to fulfil certain criteria before you will be issued with your completion certificate for the Foundation course.
Selection procedure: Informal discussion, application form completion, 2 references and a disclosure and barring check (DBS), cost met by organisation.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact us using the form below.
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