Ongoing training . . .
. . . after training and becoming full members of the branch, Samaritans volunteers are committed to undertaking 5 hours of ongoing training each year.
There is a Deputy Director who is responsible for organising a series of training events and awareness raising sessions. The awareness raising sessions sometimes involve speakers from outside organisations related to the type of work we do.
Recently, we have had sesssions on how to end emails and telephone calls effectively, as well as how to manage calls from adults who were abused as children. In the near future, it is hoped that we will have sessions on caring for our callers and and on callers who have recently suffered a bereavement.
From time to time, surveys of branch members are carried out to assess what volunteers feel their own training needs are with sessions arranged to address the greatest needs.