Volunteering and Vacancy

West Somerset Advice Bureau

Help needed to maintain vital local service

For over 35 years the West Somerset Advice Bureau has been supporting our community by providing impartial free advice on the full range of issues that local residents encounter. The advice service is provided by a team of trained volunteers and the Bureau is now seeking to recruit new advisers to join a training course commencing in February.

The Bureau Manager says: ‘Our volunteer advisers provide a critical support for people who are experiencing difficulty in their lives. We provide impartial free advice and help people to find the best solution to the issues that are confronting them. Our clients can be experiencing difficulty with employment, consumer issues, as a carer, with a disability or any one of a number of other issues. In many cases one issue can create additional problems for a client, for example redundancy will often impact on the client’s ability to meet household expenses’

‘Being a volunteer adviser is immensely rewarding’ says Geoff Lowe ‘It is great to be able to help people find the solutions to their problems. Without the West Somerset Advice Bureau who can people turn to?’

Advisers come from wide variety of backgrounds and no formal qualifications are needed as full training will be given. A willingness to listen, be non-judgemental and treat all information in the strictest confidence are the only requirements.

Catherise Hurd, Volunteer Coordinator at the Bureau, says: ‘Our volunteers are the lifeblood of the bureau and we do need to recruit more advisers in order to be able to continue to provide this critical service, I would love to hear from anyone who can help ’

The West Somerset Advice Bureau will pay towards travel and there are a variety of volunteer opportunities available.

To find out more please contact Catherine at the Bureau in Market House Lane, Minehead; by phone on 01643 704624 or by e-mail on: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.