Samaritans of Horsham & Crawley held a training day for volunteers, to equip them with the unique skills required to deliver face to face emotional support in the local community.
25 volunteers attended the interactive training day.
The training was held at St Catherine’s Hospice, Pease Pottage and was delivered by Kirsty and Lulu, Deputy Directors with joint responsibility for outreach, with special input from listening volunteer, Neil, who is an experienced outreach volunteer.
The training, which is part of the Samaritans core syllabus, draws upon the skills and experiences of Samaritans’ volunteers, and introduces awareness of some of the issues around offering emotional support, outside of the branch.
Branch Director, Chris Holland attended the training event and spoke about the importance of ongoing training and mentoring for all volunteers.
The training is only the beginning of the journey and is intended as an introduction to outreach for those volunteers who wish to work in outreach. Over time our volunteers will develop their skills through training annd experience. Our mentoring programme ensures these skills can be passed to newer volunteers.
Chris Holland, Branch Director
Horsham & Crawley aspire to offer more face to face support as part of 3 year plan.
The training is part of a three year development plan for Horsham & Crawley Samaritans, which will see an increase in the amount of face to face interactions with members of the public in the local community.
A series of events is planned in coming months to increase the visibility of the charity, and ensure the public have an awareness of the services offered by Samaritans.
Volunteers were kept energised with a range of learning exercises
We don’t want to be perceived as a faceless organisation. Whilst we take calls from people throughout the UK and Ireland, we are Horsham & Crawley Samaritans and are here for local people. We want them to know to know that they matter.
Lulu - Deputy Director for Outreach
Horsham and Crawley provide a variety of services.
Joint Deputy Director for outreach, Kirsty, looks after the Talk Team, providing educational talks and workshops to local businesses and organisations. The Samaritans branch also provide post incident support when required.
It’s really important that people are aware of the range of services available. We are particularly keen to raise awareness that we are here for everyone, including people involved in caring for others.
Kirsty, joint Deputy Director.
The activities of the branch are closely interlinked.
The Samaritans branch encourage volunteers to participate in other activities such as fundraising, whilst recognising that the core function is to provide telephone coverage 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Volunteers participate in challenging skills practice exercises