Clients can either be self referred or be referred by any professional working with them e.g. Hospital worker, aftercare support worker, Mental health team Substance abuse worker and Prison.
When you start volunteering you will join a friendly, close-knit team who will truly value your input. We will work with you to match your skills and interests with the right roles and training to help you to contribute to the best of your abilities.
Some things you might do:
- Work one-to-one with service users to mentor and support them through their time at our houses
- Working in the office answering calls
- General administration, such as data entry or record keeping
Looking for a new career?
Volunteering and peer mentoring can be a stepping stone to a new career in health and social care. The experience and training you will get as a volunteer will give you valuable material for your CV that could help you make that move.
Last year (2016-17) nearly 200 volunteers gained an accredited learning qualification and 247 found employment. Hundreds more grew in confidence and gained new personal skills and improved self-esteem as a result of volunteering.
If you are interested in developing your career options we can help you identify the skills and qualifications you might need to do so and support you to gain them.
How long can someone stay?
A resident can stay as long as he needs to, provided he is still reaping the benefits by participating in the rehabilitation programme. Ideally, we feel that residents should stay or between 6 to 24 months, but this is dependant on the resident We have very limited move-on options available and no referral rights to Local Authorities or Housing association from Fresh Start Sober Homes.
Expectations
FSSH is a twelve step based, abstinent life skills home, so residents must not use alcohol or indeed any drug whilst in residence. Each client is expected to actively participate, cooperate and apply themselves to our set programme outlined to them. Clients attending for assessment interview must be sober and willing to work with us.
FSSH is a friendly project and staff will seek to provide every resident with all their support needs in a way that is fair and equitable, with all necessary steps taken to address the needs of minority and disadvantaged groups.
Referral
FSSH takes referrals from different sources such as:
- Social Services
- Probation/Prison
- Community Mental Health Teams
- LA Housing Dept (homeless unit)
- Health Authority/GP services
- Detox Unit
- Self Referral/Direct Application
- Other Statutory/Voluntary Agencies
The initial inquiry is generally made by Telephone. On receipt of their inquiry, details of the caller/Correspondence/ and prospective resident are taken and this is kept in our referral file.
A referral form is immediately faxed to the caller/ correspondence responded, which he/she would have to fax back/post to us once the form is completed.
On receipt of the completed application form, the Manager or a Senior Support Worker makes the initial consideration as to the suitability of the prospective resident.
If the applicant is suitable, a member of staff would make contact with the person enquiring and an interview would be arranged.
Prospective residents are expected to be sober on the interview date; otherwise, the interview would have to be re-scheduled when the client is sober.
Still have questions?