Derry Samaritans seeking new volunteers

The Derry branch of Samaritans is currently recruiting new volunteers.

The organisation is a registered charity which aims to provide emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide throughout Ireland and Britian. 

Samaritans has an online application process and anyone who is interested can sign up at: www.samaritans.org. 

In addition, Rosemary, Branch Director, said an in-person volunteer information evening was being held in the group’s Derry headquarters at 16, Clarendon Street, on Tuesday, March 14.

Speaking to Derry Now, Rosemary said: “Being a Samaritan volunteer is about listening to people, in terms of what they are going through, and letting them talk about it. 

“If they feel they need to change things or do things differently, it is about going through the process of how they are going to achieve that and how they feel about what is happening? 

“So, it is a different conversation than just giving somebody another bit of advice, which they are probably getting from friends and family and, maybe, not feeling in a place where they can follow it,” said Rosemary.

Callers can have ongoing conversations with the Samaritan volunteers. 

“There are more than 20,000 Samaritan volunteers in Ireland and Britain,” said Rosemary.” 

“Samaritans can also be out and about,” she added. “When we get enough volunteers, we hope to be able to do that again. 

“That is why recruiting volunteers is so important for us. We want to keep the numbers growing, to make sure we can provide a local service as well as being on the phone for anybody who needs to talk.

“We can be in schools, in clubs or on the streets raising awareness about Samaritans. We also do ‘Feet on the Street’ where we are out giving emotional support and having conversations with people where they are, rather than making them come to us.”

Rosemary added: “During next week’s volunteer information evening, we will explain to anyone who comes along exactly what Samaritans do, the process for recruiting them and the amount of training they will go through and what change we think it will make to them individually.

“We will also tell them about the support they will be able to give to people who do need it. It is not just skills they will learn for being Samaritans, it is skills for their lives as well. 

“Learning to listen to people without giving them directions about what they should do is really important for all of us, I think,” said Rosemary.

Samaritan volunteers undergo core development training first, which runs for eight weeks. 

This is where volunteers learn how to listen and how people react to certain things and the conversations they might have.

Rosemary added: “People talk about everything. They don’t always, for instance, talk about feeling suicidal. They might be talking about having fallen out with somebody, or they are not happy at work, or they are having money issues, which is a huge thing for everybody. Conversations can be about absolutely anything when you lift that phone. It is about being prepared for that.

“Then the volunteers do about six to eight weeks of mentoring. This means they are on the telephone lines but they are with a more experienced volunteer. That is about learning to start to take those calls and to feel comfortable doing it and developing their skills through that. 

“After that, volunteers undertake additional training, which we call embedding training. That is to embed the skills they have picked up through the first training and the practical experience, to help it all sink in. 

“At this stage, volunteers realise everyone is feeling the same way, anxious about picking up the phone and not knowing what it is going to be but discovering they can handle things and the process they go through, in terms of letting somebody talk about how they are feeling is the same most of the time, even though the problems might be different. Allowing somebody to have that conversation is so important,” said Rosemary.

Rosemary said the training undertaken by Samaritan volunteers can also affect them personally, in terms of their lives and how they manage their own relationships and their own problems, as well as helping other people.

“It is a skill for life and it is something we should probably all learn at some stage in our lives,” said Rosemary. 

“It is really important that people understand, it is not an easy path to become a Samaritan volunteer but it is beneficial for anybody who does it. 

“It is really about encouraging people to volunteer because, like every other organisation, we have lost volunteers over the last couple of years with the pandemic. 

“It is important that people are back volunteering again and we think Samaritans is a great place for people to do that.”