Empathic Helpline Volunteer Roles in London, Greater London
Faith to Faithless are launching a brand new helpline for apostates in the summer of 2023, for people leaving high-control religions, and we’re looking for committed, compassionate volunteers to join us.
You will be a motivated, dedicated, and organised person with great communication skills, who is enthusiastic about volunteering your time and skills to support individuals leaving high-control religions (also known as apostates). You will have lived experience or understanding of the issues apostates face, and a kind and empathic approach to working with others.
We’ll train you to handle calls with confidence, and you’ll be getting valuable experience in supporting service users with multifaceted needs. This is a volunteering role where you can develop your interpersonal skills, help members of our community that need it most, and make a real difference in their lives by helping them to get back on track to living happy, purposeful lives without religion.
Key Tasks and Activities
- To respond quickly and efficiently to calls requesting help, providing a listening service, signposting and information to people who have experienced victimisation due to leaving their religion.
- To deliver work which adheres to high service standards, ensuring compliance with all policies and procedures.
- To keep and maintain accurate and confidential records of all work undertaken.
- To identify and maintain appropriate boundaries for all callers and recognise when and where to signpost callers for further help/information as appropriate with appropriate support from the apostate services manager
- To proactively continue to develop appropriate knowledge, attitudes and skills through regular reading of information and attending training courses.
- To support the training of helpline volunteers as required.
- To attend supervision, meetings and appraisals.
- To undertake any other appropriate duties as requested by the ASM
- To work at all times within the policies and procedures of Humanists UK.
Download and read the full application pack for more information. To apply, please complete the application form telling us why you’re interested in the role and detailing how you match the person specification on page 4 of the application pack. Then return the completed form with the subject ‘Helpline Volunteer’ to volunteer[at]humanists[dot]UK.
Please complete the application form
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Family Lives operate a free confidential helpline for anyone experiencing difficulties in their family or relationship.
Our volunteers take calls from parents and carers on a wide range of subjects, whether that might be issues around separation and divorce, isolation, depression, bullying and abuse, dealing with behavioural problems, etc. You can find out more about our services on our website.
We are a national service with home-based call takers county wide as well as two call centres in the UK, one based in Old Hatfield in Hertfordshire and one in Newcastle. Once trained volunteers sign up for a weekly 4-hour shift comprising 3 hours ‘online’ followed by a debrief session with your supervisor which can lasts around half to one hour.
We recruit volunteers with a range of backgrounds and experiences though we ask that volunteers have experience of parenting or working with children and young people, are good listeners and have a willingness to learn. Being remote it will be very important that you have a PC/laptop, plug in headset with microphone, good Wi-Fi and a private place to work from home.
You need to be a UK resident.
Our training programme is excellent and will give you the opportunity to develop the skills needed to offer empathic support and guidance to callers whatever their circumstances; all shifts are overseen by a regular shift supervisor who provides ongoing remote support. We ask our volunteers to make a commitment of 1 year (with time off for holidays), obviously we understand that circumstances sometimes make that an impossibility but can be helpful to know at the outset that is the general expectation.
We have call taker training sessions that run over five sessions and is done remotely connecting you via a Microsoft Teams link.
You would need to be able to attend all five sessions from one of these remote training groups and be available on four occasions to listen into calls, this can be organised remotely.
Remote Call Taker Training Dates:
April training dates:
Module 1 - Monday 22nd April
Module 2 - Wednesday 24th April
Module 3 - Monday 29th April
Module 4 - Wednesday 1st May
Module 5 - Wednesday 8th May
10am to 2pm
Please note that all roles offered are subject to a satisfactory DBS being obtained, you will receive details of documentation required prior to your training and this must all be in no later than the second session of your training.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
We are looking for five (5) Trustees to join the QSA team of trustees, including a Treasurer. Trustees are responsible for setting the strategic direction and for the financial oversight of QSA, ensuring we comply with relevant regulation and supporting the 40 paid staff of the charity to deliver our mission.
New trustees will be crucial to QSA's future as we expand our influencing and advocacy work, and continue providing services and support to the most vulnerable so that they can seek solutions to the issues affecting their lives.
We are looking for Trustees who are:
1. Passionate about the aims of QSA and keen to contribute to our work
2. Empathic and understanding of the issues affecting people living in poverty, and keen to learn more
3. Keen to make a positive contribution to our commitment to increasing inclusion and diversifying our body of trustees, including giving voice to those with relevant lived experience
4. Willing to take on this responsibility and committed to learning more about charity governance
5. Able to commit the time needed to be a trustee and to take this responsibility seriously, for an initial term of three (3) years
In addition, for our Treasurer we are looking for someone who:
6. Has a strong working knowledge of financial management of smaller organisations, and if this is not specifically charity finance, be willing to learn more
7. Can explain financial information for others who have less financial expertise
8. Is willing to convene our finance and fundraising committee
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.