74% of suicidal people felt that contact with Samaritans helped them decide not to end their own life
67% of people at risk of self-harm felt that contact with Samaritans helped them decide not to injure themselves
70% of people felt that contact with Samaritans helped them cope with the problem they faced
Source, website survey more...
Volunteering with Ware Samaritans
Ware
Samaritans is a volunteer-led and volunteer-run charity. As well as volunteers to help run
our centre, answering the phones and replying to emails, we are also seeking volunteers who
would prefer to help out with administrative and office functions, or help with fundraising.
Listening volunteers can be of any age from 18 upwards. We’re ordinary people from all walks of life who are just good listeners and who care about people. The most important characteristics required are listening skills, to be non-judgmental and non-advice giving, and to be able to commit the time. You will need to commit to four duties a month, each of roughly 4 hours. All volunteers are expected to attend regular ongoing training which is usually arranged within the branch.
If you would like to know more about helping us in whatever capacity, why not attend one of our informal information sessions? These are held at our centre in Ware (see here for details). The next information sessions will be:
- Wednesday 11th January 2012 at 7.30pm
- Thursday 15th March at 7.30pm
- Tuesday 1st May at 7.30pm
- Saturday 23rd June at 11.00am
- Tuesday 11th September at 7.30pm
- Tuesday 16th October at 7.30pm.
You can just pop in but it might be as well to call us first on 01920 464099 to check.
If you think you could be a Samaritans volunteer, download an information pack. This is a PDF file. (You will need Adobe Reader to open the file; you can get a free copy of the reader from Adobe’s website.)
If you want to take it further, you make a written application with references, then attend a selection day. We generally have three selection days each year. The next selection days will be:
- Sunday 19th February 2012
- Sunday 8th July
- Sunday 4th November.
If selected you will attend a number of training sessions and you are then assigned a mentor who will work with you until you are ready to ‘go it alone’.
If you are more interested in helping raise funds to help keep our service running and arrange social functions you might be interested in joining our Cheshunt Friends group.
Our training room at Cross Street