Listening Volunteer

Who Are We? 

Every 10 seconds, Samaritans responds to a call for help. We’re here, day or night, for anyone who’s struggling to cope, who needs someone to listen without judgement or pressure. We’re taking action to prevent the crisis, giving people ways to cope and the skills to be there for others. And we encourage, promote and celebrate those moments of connection between people that can save lives.

We offer listening and support to people and communities in times of need. In prisons, schools, hospitals and on the rail network, Samaritans are working with people who are going through a difficult time and training others to do the same. Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy, and Samaritans’ vision is that fewer people die by suicide. That’s why we work tirelessly to reach more people and make suicide prevention a priority.

The Role:

We are looking for Listening Volunteers to join our team at Horsham and Crawley Samaritans. Listening Volunteers provide confidential emotional support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide. This role gives you a chance to make a real difference to someone’s future. Samaritans is proud to offer its services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We rely on our volunteers to offer their time to ensure we can achieve this. 

Listening volunteers typically do one shift of about 3 to 4 hours a week at our friendly branch located in Horsham, with one of these being during our night hours. Our volunteers book the shifts that work for them and can change shifts to work around other things in their lives.

Learn to do something valuable: You’ll gain a range of new skills and the confidence to use them, including the ability to understand people and manage difficult conversations. Many employers value these kinds of skills.

What it’s like being a listening volunteer: It’s always different and always interesting – no two conversations are the same. It feels like a privilege to have people confiding in you. You’re never on your own, and there’s a fun, supportive atmosphere in our branches. You can offer support on the phone or email, and you can take a break between conversations whenever you need to. Spending a few hours helping other people can make you feel good about yourself.

What support and training will I get? You'll be given high quality training to prepare you for the role. This takes place over 10 face to face sessions along with some digital topics and usually takes place on a Saturday or Sunday. It typically takes a few months before you're ready to start volunteering. You’ll also receive ongoing training several times a year to keep building your skills. Towards the end of the training, you’ll be given a mentor – an experienced volunteer who will be with you during your first few shifts. They’ll give you feedback and support, answer your questions, and help develop your confidence. You’ll never be on your own as a listening volunteer, and there’s always time to talk through anything. Sharing what’s happened with other Samaritans is a good way of dealing with anything you find difficult (our volunteers don’t share anything outside of Samaritans and that’s really important).

What skills do I need?

Can anyone be a listening volunteer?

Samaritans welcomes applications from a wide range of applicants. Anyone has it in them to be a Samaritan. You won’t need to have previous experience or qualifications, but you will need to be non-judgemental and accepting of others. It doesn’t necessarily matter if you’ve gone through difficult times yourself, what matters is that you want to help people – all kinds of people, from all walks of life. 

You need to be 18 or over, and because we'll invest in you (our training is really high quality), we hope you will see this as something you're likely to do longer term. Serving police officers and special constables can’t be listening volunteers because they have a duty to report crimes, which might conflict with our policies, although they can volunteer in any other role. In order to safeguard our volunteers and callers the listening role requires a criminal record check. If you have a criminal record it won't necessarily stop you from becoming a volunteer.