Samaritans' info & selection day

[LeicesterIntheMorning]

NC so there's no link to my other posts

I have been invited to attend the Samaritans' info & selection day in a few weeks. After this day some attendees will be invited to attend the training. I was hoping someone who's been through this might be able to tell me what to expect from this day and how to maximise my chances of making it through training. I have wanted to do this for years! Thanks so much.

I did it and got through some years ago (at least 12 years IIRC)
The selection was not overly dreadful, but very aimed at weeding out people who weren't suitable. Further training was good and I felt well supported, it was only later on in branch that I was unhappy with things. This was mostly down to a small network of older retired ladies who had taken over the branch as their own, a rather more hardcore version of the WI if you will.
Ultimately I wasn't happy with the way a couple of my calls were dealt with and the branch was rather inflexible about my particular (and very relevant) availability so I left.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it's served me well on my CV on several occasions, so I would definitely recommend it, even if it's just for the short term- good luck OP

Largepieces I am surprised you have used Samaritan experience on your CV as I believed volunteers were meant to maintain confidentiality and not speak about the fact they were volunteers (for good reason?)

I once got through but didn’t do it in the end due to other commitments.

I would imagine they will be looking for people who can listen, have empathy and who can put aside their own experiences.

Good luck!

Oh and reasonably robust too.

When I did the selection day it was very well organised and thought provoking. It is designed to assess your suitability so I would recommend just being yourself. I found being a Samaritan very rewarding, but gave up because the time commitment was too much as a single parent.

When I did it the info day prior to selection was just to weed out the unsuitable - mainly those who thought Samaritans was about giving advice vs being a good listener. They were also clear on the commitment needed for training and regular volunteering which involved some people ruling themselves out.

I’d honestly just be yourself, at least in my branch we weren’t over run by volunteers but every info day had some people who’d got a bit confused between Samaritans and being a life coach. I found it rewarding (though there were a disturbing number of dirty calls!!!) and only gave it up when I moved and no longer had the time.

Would echo what Large has said. Just be yourself, if you ever get to take calls you’ll see not one is the same and there’s no practice run or magic formula for them so go to the selection day with that in mind.

Elio, while listeners don’t go around wearing a Samaritans badge it’s perfectly fine to reference it on a CV, and indeed you can link yourself to it on Linked In. It gives an employer a sense of who you are as a person. This is in the T&C you agree to as a volunteer. Mainly it’s a good idea to keep it as quiet as possible so that people don’t just download on you and you can continue to have a nice time with friends rather than being a full time agony aunt!

Good luck OP, hope you enjoy your selection day and get through training. I made some wonderful friends through my time with Sams.

Agree with previous posters. I did it years ago now, and it is best to just take it as it comes, be honest with your responses, and listen carefully to what is being said. It's easy to spot the people who aren't going to make it - the ones who are full of their own ideas and wanting to give advice. Sams training is very thorough, and focusses on giving consistent responses, so you have to be prepared to listen and take on board their way of doing things. It's really rewarding and one of the best things for me was meeting a complete cross-section of different people among the other volunteers - some real surprises, people who I knew in other contexts and others who I would never have met otherwise. It was a brilliant time (I did it for 7 years before work commitments became too much to handle). I often think about going back and re-training. Good luck!

There is no requirement to keep your membership of Sams a secret, but not everyone wants other people to know that they are part of it, so you have to be discreet if you meet another volunteer in public.

I found the selection process fairly straightforward, but I was unable to take up the training place because you have to have 100% attendance over a 10/12 (?) week course, and I had a week's holiday booked. There are no exceptions to the 100% attendance which makes the training impractical for many people.

You also need to be prepared for lots of talking about suicide. Their mission statement is to reduce deaths by suicide. Suicide is mentioned a lot.

If you're successful and find the branch commitment doesn't work for you, theres a branch that specifically runs at festivals in the summer.

It used to be that Sams preferred you to not talk about your volunteering as calls would be taken locally, so people who knew you volunteered might be put off calling, but calls go all over the country now. Plus, knowing someone who volunteers for Sams makes someone more likely to volunteer, so they like you to be open about it for that reason.

Good luck!

Ours was general information about Samaritans, which I already knew having purchased various books about the charity over the years and listening skills, and then a short interview about why you wanted to do it.

It was many years ago I did it and I know things have changed since then but I believe that's the same.

I was forced to stop for sometime because it came into conflict with my job when my hours were changed. I couldn't say why the change was difficult for me and I got into trouble at work so was forced to stop, the essential night shift every month was difficult as well.

When I went back I only managed a short time before my mental health began to struggle with it - that's not to say there wasn't support in place, there was, but I had a couple of very distressing calls and really struggled with the philosophy of self determination and not being able to give advice or anything other than be there. I won't go into details because that wouldn't be fair but there are calls on every subject imaginable not only suicide, and you're trained in things like how to handle sexual calls as well.

Thank you so much everyone, this is extremely helpful, I am very grateful for your responses.