Kensington Neighbourhood House was established in Kensington in 1975 as a meeting place for the community. Today we offer a range of adult education, art and hobby, social, children’s activities, childcare and health and wellbeing programs. The Kensington Neighbourhood House is a place to meet, share information, develop skills and break down isolation and other community barriers. Each year we welcome over 1,000 locals through our door to connect, learn and create with one of the 70 programs we offer.

As the name suggests, our Form Help Volunteers assist people to complete all sorts of forms and other paperwork, including Centrelink, Medicare and Housing forms. Assistance is also needed to apply for Police Checks, Passports and Working With Children Checks. Forms may be in hardcopy or online.

The people using our Form Help service generally have low literacy and/or English as an additional language - making negotiating bureaucratic paperwork difficult. They need a friendly support person to help with the form filling process and help them understand the next steps.

Form Help Volunteers need:

• to be calm and patient
• a friendly disposition and must genuinely like people
• a high level of written literacy
• legible handwriting 
• a high level of digital literacy to complete forms online and negotiate online portals etc
• the ability to understand government forms 
• a current Police Check (we will pay for this)
• a commitment to a regular weekly  2 hour time slot

We ask Form Help Volunteers to nominate a 2 hour time slot that they can be available each week - Tuesdays, Thursdays or Fridays from 2pm-4pm. We book a maximum of 2 people per volunteer each week. Evening sessions may also be an option.

Form Help is offered at the Kensington Neighbourhood House (89 McCracken Street, Kensington VIC 3031). A computer and wifi access is provided as needed.