Charity appeals for volunteer Scams Awareness Champions

Following the success of its first year of scams advice, Age UK Cheshire East is on the lookout for more volunteers to be the eyes and ears of their Scams Awareness and Aftercare Project.

The Project works to empower older people to spot, avoid and report scams to keep themselves and their communities safe. It also provides much needed support to victims of scams. It is run in partnership with Cheshire East Council Trading Standards, and kindly funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and Garfield Weston Foundation.

Volunteers, known as Scams Awareness Champions, are plugged in to their local communities. They know where to connect with older people, face to face and online, and are passionate about sharing scams awareness messages to keep them safe. The Champions let the project know about scams they receive or hear of in their community, so older people can be alerted, through social media and the project’s popular monthly scams awareness bulletin. Volunteers are instrumental in sharing the alerts in their community. As COVID-19 restrictions ease, volunteers will also be helping out at scams awareness sessions for older people across northern Cheshire East.

The beauty of this kind of volunteering is that it’s flexible, can be mostly done from home and fit in around your life. You can volunteer from as little as an hour a week, to however much time you would like to give. All the Scams Awareness Champions receive training about scams and meet four times a year to get to know each other and for further updates.

The project is especially appealing for volunteers in the Knutsford, Wilmslow, Congleton, Alderley Edge and Handforth communities and surrounding areas.

The Project’s manager, Sally Wilson commented, “Our project has got off to a great start, supporting many older people to be more resilient against scams. Our Scams Awareness Champions are already responsible for sharing information about more than 100 scams with the project and helping their community be scam aware, but we’re appealing for more to come on board so we can reach further into our communities”.

If this is something that appeals to you, you can get in touch for more information on 01625 612958 or email volunteering@ageukce.org

Pictured - Project Manager Sally Wilson with CEC Trading Standards Enforcement Officer Mark Lodge at a recent scams awareness drop in at the Cooperative Bank, Macclesfield.