Listening Volunteer

Samaritans provides comprehensive training and ongoing support for our volunteers, including assigning you a mentor and making sure that you always have colleagues available in branch or on the phone for advice and guidance. We support callers with a huge range of difficult situations and not everyone who calls us is suicidal. Listening to our callers during the most challenging and vulnerable times of their lives can be emotionally demanding, but it is also very rewarding and we know that our support can make the difference between someone choosing to end their life or not.

You will meet a lot of new people and gain skills in verbal and written communication. Learning to be an active listener can change the way you approach conversations with your family, friends, colleagues and clients in a really positive way. Once you have completed your training and probationary period, there are many opportunities to join teams within the branch and get involved in other activities such as training, mentoring, outreach, volunteer care and many other roles. Or you may just choose to continue with your regular weekly shift - that is fine too!

The branch is located on Back Albert Place, close to Pittville Circus. We have ramp access to the front door, accessible toilets, onsite parking for volunteers on duty, kitchen facilities, a large meeting room with separate toilets and kitchen and a branch library. We use computers for training and duties, so you will need to be reasonably confident with basic IT use, although we can provide help with this if necessary. No specific experience or knowledge is required and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We invite all new volunteers to our regular information sessions at the branch where you can meet current volunteers and find out more about our service. We look forward to hearing from you.