Volunteering
Click here to enquire further about volunteering
Or call our branch admin line on 028 90 381133
Downloadable the application form:
Please return completed form by email to the admin address
The notes below are to help you to decide whether or not you wish to proceed with your application to join Samaritans as a volunteer
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A SAMARITAN?
We are people from all walks of life who provide 24-hour confidential emotional support to anyone experiencing distress, despair or suicidal feelings. People may choose to telephone us any time, call in at the centre, or send an email. You have to LISTEN attentively, unhurriedly and at length.
WILL MY FAMILY BE INVOLVED?
Apart from helping you to be available, they will be excluded from this part of your life. You cannot discuss anything concerning callers with them. All our work is CONFIDENTIAL, we are known by our first names only, and callers do not know our personal details.
WHAT QUALIFICATIONS ARE REQUIRED?
None by way of education. Social position and job do not matter. Your beliefs are your own affair, as are the callers. We need friendly, ordinary people over 17 who are not afraid of distress, grief and embarrassment and are not easily shocked. We are usually short of people with free time during the working day, or able to do weekday overnight duties. If you are working, your duties will fit in with your free time.
WILL I BE SUITABLE?
These notes, the application form, the interview and the Selection evening are designed to help you and us to assess this and help you to imagine yourself in situations you might encounter as a Samaritan.
I’VE HAD SOME TROUBLES OF MY OWN
This need not stop you. It depends on how you went through your own troubled times and whether you have come to terms with them. Your own experience of distress may have enlarged your sympathy and compassion or it may have left you too vulnerable to take on other people’s troubles.
WHY DO YOU TURN PEOPLE DOWN AS SAMARITANS?
We may feel that you are too close to troubles of your own, or that Samaritan work might touch on a sore spot and harm you. It could be that your talents are of a different type or that you are too active and forceful for Samaritan listening. It is also possible that we might fail to realise how good you would be as a Samaritan. We are not infallible.
WHAT IS THE TRAINING LIKE?
If you are accepted for the Initial Training classes, you will be able to experience life-like situations of what you might expect to encounter as a volunteer. The classes are on 4 consecutive Monday nights with two classes on a Saturday during the day. When you have completed 4 duties you will have to attend 2 further Monday evening classes. All classes are compulsory. It will be learning by taking part and you should be prepared to contribute as well as absorb.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
If you decide to volunteer, please complete the Application form and Criminal Conviction Form. After taking up your preferences, you will then be asked to come to the centre for a one-to-one interview with one of the Selection Team, where we can learn more about you and you can ask questions about aspects of our work. There will then be a Group Selection evening and you will be told soon after if you have been accepted for initial training.
Don't live near Belfast? If you want to know more about volunteering in other branches please see the main Samaritans website