Hft - Family Carer Support Service

Who We Help, Why We Help & the Difference It Makes

What We Do

If you have a relative or friend with a learning disability and would like support and information, Hft’s free national Family Carer Support Service can help.

• One-to-one support is available by phone, email and letter
• We organise regular workshops, enabling you to find out about the things that matter to you as a carer
• A range of family carer focused resources about relevant issues and legislation are developed in partnership with other organisations and government bodies throughout the year. These help us to ensure a voice for family carers in policy development.

You can contact us on 0808 801 0448. Our Freephone number is answered Monday to Thursday from 9am to 4pm. If you want to call outside of those hours, or if we’re busy with someone else when you call, please do leave us a voicemail – we’ll call you back within seven working days. You can also email us on  [email protected] if that is easier for you.

Volunteer

Volunteering 

Help us give adults with learning disabilities the chance to live with more independence and choice by doing something amazing – volunteer at Hft.

Why volunteer with Hft?

By volunteering with Hft, you’ll be doing something special:  helping people with learning disabilities to take control of their lives and live the best life possible.

Our volunteers tell us they’ve gained confidence, skills, and new friendships through their experience and made a real difference to lives of those we support.

There are lots of reasons to volunteer and we will support you with your own goals whether they are:

• to gain employment
• to work towards professional qualifications
• to build your CV
• Thinking about changing your career
• building your confidence
• improving your wellbeing
• meeting like-minded people and improving your social networks, or
• your life has been touched by learning disabilities and you wish to help others.

What we can offer

• A rewarding volunteering experience, managed by a dedicated team who will continually support your progress and goals
• Being part of a team of dedicated and caring people
• We provide a simple recruitment procedure, an initial induction into your role, shadowing others, training, ongoing support and help achieving your goals
• You may also have the opportunity to get a volunteering accreditation with schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme
• A range of rewarding roles to suit any age, ability, background, education and experience
• A free DBS check and any travel and out of pocket expenses.

What we need

• People who are passionate and committed to helping others once or twice a week for a few hours over a period of 3-6 months minimum
• People who are caring, compassionate, reliable and driven to help others
• People who can be patient, understanding, non-judgmental, listen and communicate well, and who want to work alongside people who may display challenging behaviours
• People interested in learning more about supporting people with learning disabilities.

Challenges

People with learning disabilities can sometimes display unpredictable behaviour, or behaviour that can be challenging to support.  Often this is down to a communication breakdown, whereby the person displaying challenging behaviour wants or feels they need something, but this is not being recognised by those around them. Sometimes it’s a way of expressing control.  Either way, you will need to work to understand the underlying causes of the behaviour, so you can better support the person you are mentoring.

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