Priority 4: Capacity
4. Increase our capacity to become one team of valued, diverse, skilled people
Our challenge
Samaritans’ impact is limited by a lack of diverse representation in our people, by our capacity issues and the pressure some roles are under, and by our existing organisational structure.
Our ambition
To meet the demand for our services by recruiting more people, from a diverse range of communities, giving them the best support so they stay with us longer and work effectively together as one Samaritans team.
We will strive to become more flexible and supportive so that a wider range of people can fit volunteering into their lives and so we fully reflect the communities we serve. We will support personal development, which will encourage and inspire volunteers and staff to commit to us for as long as possible.
Samaritans Ireland objectives:
- Inform, engage, and inspire volunteers and staff through existing channels and events, managing key strategic change communications and introducing new ways of working to optimise internal engagement.
- Provide support to Ireland branches on volunteer recruitment and retention, including supporting any Ireland-specific needs and creating robust and meaningful non-listening volunteer support roles, including the potential development of satellite hubs.
- Ensure the Samaritans Ireland staff, Board, Board committees, branches and volunteers have the necessary breadth of expertise and organisation capability in place to deliver on the strategy, including the proper systems and processes.
- Strengthen our commitment to EDI, helping to ensure that our volunteers, staff and services reflect the diversity of Ireland.
- Play an active role in the wider Samaritans organisation, collaborating with colleagues (both staff and volunteers) across Samaritans to coordinate work, share expertise and optimise resources (eg reporting lines, goals, etc).