Southampton Samaratins
Volunteering for Southampton Samaritans
We need volunteers in Southampton!
Interested in volunteering for Southampton Samaritans? Could you give four hours a week to help us raise the £40,000 we need each year?
“I was so depressed. Thank you so much for being there when everything else had failed.”
Change someone's life - it could be your own
Listening is what we do best. It's an active skill, which helps you to connect with the person you are talking to. Being a good listener is about caring enough to take time out to be there for another person.
Without volunteers, Samaritans couldn't exist. If the Samaritans decided to pay each volunteer the average wage of £10.79 per hour, Samaritans costs would be over £26 million per year. So, our volunteers really are essential to the running of Samaritans.
Currently there are approximately 17,000 Samaritan Volunteers in 203 branches operating in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Samaritan Volunteers are available 24 hours a day to provide emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those that may lead to suicide.
A Role for You
Listening volunteers support the majority of our service but there are many other volunteering opportunities with Samaritans. You could volunteer for the publicity team, or help out with administration, or help raise vital funds to keep the branch open.
Southampton Samaritans offer support to more than 22,000 people that have no one else to turn to, every year. We offer callers support by phone, email, text and face to face, providing confidential, non-judgemental, emotional support to anyone in distress or despair. We keep an open mind and offer callers the opportunity to explore their feelings of self-harm or suicide. Through active listening we give time and space, not advice.
Listening Volunteers
Could you listen to a caller’s story and understand how they feel? Can you listen when others might start making judgements, assumptions or offering advice? If you think you can, you may have the potential to become a great Samaritans volunteer.
Being a Samaritan can be very rewarding, but it isn’t always easy, which is why we provide full initial, and on-going, training to all volunteers, as well as ensuring that a solid volunteer support network is in place. Samaritan volunteers make a commitment to offer their time on a regular basis. Although you’ll schedule your own shifts, all volunteers do at least one three or four hour shifts (or a night shift) each week and attend all training sessions. If you’re over 18 why not come along to one of our information evenings and find out more?
Please call 07518 905638 or email volunteering@southamptonsamaritans.org.uk to register your interest for an information evening.
Support Volunteers
Providing our service means we need a large team of people with a range of skills. From raising the £40,000 we need each year, to putting up posters, to addressing envelopes and filing, to keeping an eye on the drains – there’s lots to do! Therefore we are always looking for support volunteers who can work with us to support our service. In particular we need people with skills in the following areas: Publicity, Fundraising, Administration, Buildings Maintenance, Book Keeping/Accountancy.
If you feel you could offer some time, no matter how small, and are over 18, why not come along to one of our information evenings and find out how you can help us?
Please call 07518 905638 or email volunteering@southamptonsamaritans.org.uk to register your interest for an information evening.
Fundraising Lead
It takes £40,000 a year to run our service and we are now looking for an enthusiastic volunteer to help us establish a new fundraising regime. We’re not looking for someone to do it all – but we would like a lead person who can help us review where we are, build a new team and establish some regular fundraising events.
You’re likely to have had some previous experience in raising funds, team building and, if possible, working in the voluntary sector. If you’d like to find out more please contact the Branch Chairman for an informal discussion - please ring 07518 905638 for more details.
Are You Interested?
If you are interested in finding out more information about volunteering for Southampton Samaritans, there are a number of different ways you can contact us. We will then contact you with more details.
By phone - call us on our dedicated recruitment number, 07518 905638.
By email - email volunteering@southamptonsamaritans.org.uk
Online - just visit the national Samaritans website and fill out this form. Your enquiry will get routed through to your closest Samaritans branch.
Information Evenings
If you would like to find out more about what it is like to be a Samaritans volunteer you can come along to one of our regular information evenings, held at our branch offices in Southampton. You can discover more about what it means to be a Samaritan, and ask existing volunteers any questions you might have.
Please call 07518 905638 or email volunteering@southamptonsamaritans.org.uk to register your interest for an information evening.
WANT TO VOLUNTEER?
Come along to our next Information Evening to find out what it means to be a Samaritan.
FIND OUT MORE HERE
DID YOU KNOW . . .
£2.29 pays for a volunteer to answer a call, and £3 provides emotional support via e-mail?
