Opportunity - Community People

Could you spare a few hours a month to help someone feel more confident with technology?

Spire Computer Help is a friendly, volunteer-run group that has been tackling digital exclusion in Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and the surrounding area since 2014. We offer free, one-to-one drop-in sessions where local people, many of them older adults, bring along their phone, tablet or laptop and get patient help with whatever they need. That might be video calling the grandchildren, using the NHS App, spotting a scam email, or setting up a new device.

We're looking for new Digital Champions to join our team of around 12 volunteers at our Burgess Hill sessions. The commitment is flexible: we're simply asking for one or two sessions a month. Our drop-ins run on Monday and Thursday mornings (10am to 12noon) at St Wilfrid's Church Hall and the Spire Café at St John's Church.

You don't need to be a tech expert. What matters most is patience, kindness, and a willingness to sit alongside someone and work things out together. You'll be part of a supportive, sociable team who share what they know, and there's always someone to ask if a question has you stumped. All our volunteers are DBS checked.

It's genuinely rewarding work. You'll see people go from "I can't do this" to "I did it myself!", and that makes a real difference to their independence, their connections and their wellbeing.

Skills

We're not looking for IT experts. We're looking for people who are:

Patient, friendly and good at putting people at ease, especially older adults who may be nervous about technology
Comfortable using everyday technology such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, email and the internet (you don't need to know every device or platform, as we all bring different strengths)
Able to explain things clearly in plain, everyday language, without jargon
Resourceful and happy to find answers, whether by trying things out, searching online or asking a fellow volunteer
Good listeners who let the learner set the pace and focus on what they want to achieve
Reliable for the sessions they sign up to

Availability

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Morning	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Afternoon	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Evening	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

We're flexible: you don't need to commit to particular days. At the end of each month I ask our volunteers for their availability and then publish a rota for the following month, so you can choose sessions that fit around your other commitments. If you're away on holiday or busy one month, that's absolutely fine. Our drop-in sessions run on Monday mornings (10am to 12noon) at St Wilfrid's Church Hall and Thursday mornings (10am to 12noon) at the Spire Café, St John's Church. We also hold free monthly tech talks on Wednesday afternoons at St Wilfrid's Church Hall, starting at 2:30pm. We're always glad of extra help there too, whether that's welcoming people, helping with refreshments, or offering one-to-one support after the talk.