Volunteer for DLS
Who is DLS?
DLS offers help and advice to disabled people, their friends, families and carers and the Legal Access department is the first point of contact for callers with a legal problem.
Why does DLS need volunteers?
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.
Our service provides a vital link between the legal world and many disabled people. The majority of the volunteers we recruit would, in the main, be helping to run this crucial service.
Who is DLS looking for?
We are looking for anyone who has an interest in the law and in helping disabled people and their friends and families assert their legal rights.
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 but have a few spare hours during the week.
Everyone is welcome however, as our volunteers need to be able to take accurate records of DLS callers’ personal details and their legal problems, we do ask for our volunteers to have a good standard of written and spoken English and to be confident in using the telephone and in using computer databases.
What would I be doing?
The majority of the DLS volunteer force work within the Legal Access Team.
Callers to DLS begin by speaking to someone within the Legal Access department who takes personal details about the disabled person and details of their legal problem. If the problem is within our areas of law: Community Care; Employment; Post 16 Education; Consumer; Welfare Benefits and Disability Discrimination we will then book them a telephone appointment to speak to one of our qualified team of legal advisors.
Sometimes people contact DLS about an issue for which we do not have the appropriate legal knowledge or expertise. In these cases we use our extensive database of other advice agencies to signpost the caller to somewhere appropriate which should be able to assist them further.
There may also be some opportunities for volunteers to work alongside members of our legal team. These volunteers would assist our legal team in answering written queries from disabled people, attend case conferences with clients both on DLS premises and in the client’s own home, assist with the preparation of documents for use in court or even attend hearings with the legal professional.
We also have volunteers who assist our Finance Director with all the financial elements of running a busy legal advice centre, volunteers who assist in our reception area, volunteers who assist our Communications Manager with IT work and volunteers who assist with fundraising.
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.
During 2009-2010 DLS volunteers had the opportunity to attend the launch party the DLS British Lottery Fund Project at Middle Temple, attend the annual Liberty Festival in Trafalgar Square, take part in the London Marathon, attend internal DLS training events and attend the annual volunteers Christmas party.
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.
Volunteers are not expected to be out of pocket financially due to their volunteering commitment with DLS therefore 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 or download an application pack here and return it to us at:
Disability Law Service
39-45 Cavell Street
London
E1 2BP
Thank you and we hope you enjoy your time volunteering with us and find the experience useful and rewarding.