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 three call centres in the UK, one based in Old Hatfield in Hertfordshire, one based in Hadleigh in Essex 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, headset, good Wi-Fi and a private place to work from home.
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 which run over five sessions on the dates below. Training is done remotely, connecting you via a Microsoft Teams link. You would need to be able to attend all five sessions and be available on four occasions to listen in to calls, this can be organised remotely.
Training Dates
- Saturday 7th January 2023 10am – 2pm
- Saturday 14th January 2023 10am – 2pm
- Saturday 21st January 2023 10am – 2pm
- Tuesday 24th January 2023 10am -2 pm
- Thursday 26th January 2023 10am -2 pm
- Saturday 28th January 2023 10am – 2pm
- Tuesday 31st January 2023 10am -2 pm
- Thursday 2nd February 2023 10am -2 pm
- Saturday 4th February 2023 10am – 2pm
- Tuesday 7th February 2023 10am -2 pm
To apply, please contact: volunteercentre@whcvs.org.uk