Volunteer for DLS
Volunteers play a crucial role within Disability Law Service and their involvement in our work is highly valued by all DLS staff. In return we hope that we give our volunteers valuable experience of working in a busy legal environment.
Who is DLS looking for?
What would I be doing?
What would I get out of the experience?
What do current volunteers say about DLS?
How do I get involved?
Volunteer Roles
Who is DLS looking for?
Our current volunteers come from many different backgrounds – some are undergraduates, some are studying to become solicitors or barristers, some are school leavers, some are retired professionals and some are people who are still in work.
What would I be doing?
We have the following volunteer roles available:
Triage Service Volunteers
The Triage Service takes all incoming calls from disabled people who are looking for advice. Therefore volunteers in this team provide a vital and important function, and as such it is the main area in which DLS takes in volunteers.
Administration Volunteer
As a busy legal practice Administration Volunteers are always welcome and will work as part of a small team dealing with a range of administrative, office management, accounting and events related tasks.
Finance Volunteer
The post involves finance administration and related functions ensuring that all banking, cash handling and payments are managed in accordance with the charity’s financial procedures.
Development Volunteer
The exact responsibilities will depend on the particular skills, experience and interests of the successful applicant. This post would suit a person with some experience of working with disabled people.
ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) Volunteer
For this role you will be confident with IT, and have a working knowledge of computers and an understanding of network principles. Some knowledge of CSS, HTML and the .Net platform would also be an advantage.
Website Content Volunteer
As a Website Content Volunteer you’ll join us in developing our web-based information resources, covering our areas of law.
Legal Team (Employment and Equalities Act) Volunteer
The Employment and Equalities Team conducts advice, casework/litigation, consultancy and training in the areas of employment law, post 16 education and disability discrimination in consumer law (goods and services).
The areas of work open to volunteers are mainly ‘advice’ and casework / litigation support.
Legal Team (Community Care and Welfare Benefits) Volunteer
The Social Welfare Law Team deals with Community Care and Welfare Benefits Law.
Working with the Social Welfare Law team will involve researching the law, assessing legal problems and, based on the outcome of your research, providing legal advice. All volunteers will be supervised throughout the process.
Legal Secretary (Community Care and Welfare Benefits) Volunteer
If you are interested in volunteering in the Community Care/Welfare Benefits Legal Team as a Legal Secretary, the main duties are to type letters and other legal documents such as Completing LSC forms and other court documents.
Press Officer (Community Care and Welfare Benefits) Volunteer
The main duties are researching, writing and distributing press releases to targeted media.
What would I get out of the experience?
Apart from being part of the vibrant DLS family, our volunteers also have the opportunity to join in internal and external events and meetings with DLS staff, and can attend internal training sessions.
If volunteers have any views or ideas about the work we do or how we do it we are more than happy to listen to their ideas and implement any we feel would help us to help disable people even better than we do at present.
All volunteers are entitled to claim reasonable travel costs over and above what they would usually spend on travel and, for those who volunteer for an entire day, the cost of lunch up to a total of £5 per day.
What do current volunteers say about DLS?
“Having been in a fortunate family in a fortunate country, I feel one should help those who are less fortunate. DLS is a particular challenge as its work is not obviously appealing but it still does a worthwhile job.” Harry.
“Volunteering at DLS has helped me with my work for my Law degree. It has helped me to see how I can apply the knowledge I am gaining from my studies at university to real life situations.” Charley.
How do I get involved?
If you are interested in what we do and would like to know more, please email us at volunteer@dls.org.uk
Alternatively please complete the following form and return it to us by post:
Thank you and we hope you enjoy your time volunteering with us and find the experience useful and rewarding.