Ani Tylee: Citizens Advice Bureau looking for volunteers to join team of 'special people'

Ani Tylee.

Our clients come from all walks of life, so we want volunteers from all walks of life, ages and backgrounds.

A snapshot of last year's clients shows they reflect Hawke's Bay's wide and increasing diversity.

About half our Hastings clients identify their ethnicity as New Zealander, and 40 per cent as either Maori or Pacific Islander. The remainder are Asian, Middle Eastern, African and European. Fifty percent are female, 75 per cent are aged between 20 and 60, the majority come from Hastings, with about 10 per cent from Havelock and 15 per cent from Flaxmere.

Half of the 4600 annual inquiries phone in, a few email, and the balance visit the bureau, in Queen St, Hastings.

We welcome our clients and want them to feel that our place is their place. A place where they will find impartial and unconditional respect, generosity and care in the spirit of manaakitanga. We make no distinction between a patched gang-member and a tweedy matron! Each gets a friendly, "Hello, how can we help?"

So it's a special person who becomes a CAB volunteer. I am proud to have a team of these special people and in June last year the CAB Hastings Volunteer team won the Best Volunteer Team at the Volunteer HB Excellence Awards.

Currently we have 28 volunteers, the most recent started late last year, the longest-serving joined the Bureau in 1996! Many have been with us at least five years. They tell me that it's incredibly rewarding; what they love most about being involved is the range of issues that they help with.

No two days are ever the same. Some inquiries can be a straightforward five minutes, others can take repeat visits and many hours to sort out.

Over my nearly two years as manager inquiries have become more complex, challenging and time-consuming. Top of the list are legal matters, closely followed by consumer issues. These involve the retailers who won't honour warranties, dodgy car deals and problems with online trading.

We are also seeing more people with concerns about employment contracts - employers who won't give them, sign them or honour them if they do. And of course there are the frustrating and depressing pleas for help with accommodation, both emergency and long-term. Finding suitable outcomes is increasingly difficult.

But frequently people leave the bureau armed with the knowledge and confidence to take action. Unexpected rewards come when we hear of a positive outcome. A woman, very dispirited by incessant neighbours' noise and harassment, returned several weeks after being helped, much improved. She left a simple card saying, "Thank you for your kindness".

Or the satisfied client who told us eight months after coming in with a complaint regarding a local retailer he had finally received satisfaction - a full refund. From a more unusual inquiry - a client wanted to track down historical information regarding a relative to hopefully verify a family story. He was successful, and emailed to say "Thank you all for the information you gave me in my quest. It helped me find out the truth."

These are what make volunteers such as Raewyn Polglase, board chairwoman, inspired. She says, "On any given day, you could be asked a wide range of questions. We work alongside each client to give them the information that they need to be empowered to act and deal with issues themselves. "

So if you are interested in people, a good listener, comfortable using a computer and enjoy researching and learning new things - why not put your hand up to be a CAB volunteer?

You'll be fully supported with initial and ongoing training as you come up to speed with the challenges and satisfactions of the role. You'll also be supported by colleagues and a huge range of resources including a referral database listing more than 35,000 organisations.

Contact me if this sounds like you, or you just want to know more. The Hastings bureau is at 112 Queen St East, phone 876 8423 or email hastings@cab.org.nz. The Napier bureau is in The Community Hub, 62 Raffles St, phone 835 9664.

- Ani Tylee, manager of CAB Hastings, has worked for a number of not-for-profit organisations, including the National Youth Drama School, Young Enterprise Scheme, Waiapu Cathedral, and the NZ Choral Federation.