Volunteer – Community Bereavement Cafe Facilitator

Role summary Community Bereavement Cafés are welcoming and open spaces for people to talk about their grief.  Facilitators help run and facilitate the cafes. A standard DBS check will be required for this role. Main duties of this role may include any of the following: · Help prepare the venue for the café set up – positioning chairs, preparing refreshments, making the seating welcoming and conducive to a positive experience. · Welcome people as they arrive. · Provide name labels to ensure people are known by name. · Identify newcomers and assist them to settle in – making introductions and offering a helping hand to begin with. Being sure to withdraw yourself from the group when it feels right to allow peer support to take over and blossom. · Offer and make drinks, clear cups etc. · Facilitate a session in the Cafe after receiving bereavement training. · Give notice before the café is due to end so that people can draw their conversations to a close. · Occasionally, at the end, distribute feedback forms to participants to complete anonymously. · When everyone has left, put the room back to how it was before the café started. · Escalate any concerns or worries about attendees to the Cafe lead. ·Uphold strict confidentiality and maintain professional boundaries at all times. Training & supervision · Training provided in understanding grief and bereavement, communication and active listening skills, facilitating group spaces, safeguarding, boundaries, referral pathways, cafe operations and practical logistics. · Monthly supervision/support. · Ongoing training as required. Experience & qualifications required · Having excellent communication and listening skills. · Ability to join in conversation and contribute appropriately. · Happy chatting in a group or individually. · Allowing others to speak and give them space to do that. · Being comfortable discussing bereavement, death, dying and loss. · Ability to judge the correct moment to leave a conversation, and have the confidence and skills to do that. · Ability to effectively facilitate groups – creating a supportive environment in which everyone feels able and welcome to contribute, and in which no one person dominates to the detriment of others. · Friendly and approachable. · Empathic · Calm · Non-judgemental. · Flexible in approach · Emotional intelligence, and alertness while facilitating. · Being able to read situations and act appropriately. · Reliable and punctual. · Understand, and maintain the boundaries of your role. · Well-developed coping strategies and resilience in discussing difficult feelings and bereavement. · Able to respect, and maintain, people’s confidentiality. · Able to ask for help and advice when situations arise that are beyond your own knowledge, capabilities, or comfort levels. · To be self-reflective and make full use of supervision.