There are two key roles in The Listening Place:
Listening Volunteers: (LVs) provide ongoing face-to-face support to visitors on regular, fortnightly 4-hour shifts during which they meet with up to three visitors (for up to 50 minutes each). Although no experience is necessary, we seek certain qualities in our listening volunteers, including the ability to be non-judgemental, warm, caring, empathetic and supportive, and to avoid giving advice.
Helping Volunteers: (HVs) are central to each shift as they meet and greet our visitors, creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere, and also support the listening volunteers. For this varied role, we are recruiting volunteers who have the empathy to greet distressed visitors, the willingness to undertake a variety of admin and other tasks with a cheerful and helpful attitude and the resilience to support their team on shift. Our helping volunteers need to be proactive, self-starters and team players with a basic understanding of IT who are able to commit to a regular, weekly 4-hour shift.