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Think You Have What it Takes to be a Crisis Hotline Volunteer? Find Out Here!

Stories
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by Edmund Quek (staff writer)
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March 2018
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While they are endearingly termed Samaritans, volunteers at SOS are so much more than just charitable or helpful persons.

Some are lawyers, others engineers; there are teachers, and there are also IT experts. They may be 27 or they may be 72. 

These are people like you and me. They have jobs, families, people and things which they care about in their own lives. Yet, they make the effort to be there for people they may never meet and choose to give their presence, time, and hearts to these individuals on a regular and consistent basis.

Just like how no two calls we receive over the hotline are the same, each volunteer at SOS brings with them their own stories, experiences and personality.

Think you have what it takes to be a crisis hotline volunteer? Find out here!

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The Commitment

The commitment at SOS is unique from many other volunteering activities. The hotline is manned from the operations room in the SOS office and volunteers come in for at least one 4-hour duty a week, and one overnight duty a month. Senior volunteers also have the opportunity to take on additional roles, such as training facilitators and mentors to junior volunteers.

“SOS is also special in that you have the freedom to pick when you want to volunteer.” – M: homemaker, SOS volunteer of 12 years.

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The Volunteering Work

Callers to the hotline can be anybody. Some may be elderly suffering isolation, some may be youth stressed out at school or at home, some may be adults facing varied forms of life crises.

Volunteers provide emotional support through empathetic listening and verbal responses aimed at helping callers clarify their thoughts. What this helps callers do is re-assess their present situation, re-evaluate how they want to face it, and approach the required resources in the community to support them if necessary.

“They would say thanks for listening and that they feel better after talking to me. Sometimes, it would be the difference in tone from the start to the end of the call. The callers would sound more relieved at the end of the call.” – O: self-employed, SOS volunteer of 2 years.

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Listening is a big part of what our volunteers do

SOS volunteers don’t play the role of counsellor or advice-giver, but instead provide a listening ear to those who feel they can’t or won’t talk to anyone else about what they are going through.

While the hotline is manned by volunteers, full time staff provide guidance and supervise all operations.

The Training

Even with staff guidance however, taking on this role definitely requires ample preparation on the volunteer’s part.

The volunteer preparation training provided in-house at SOS takes place over nine months and is divided into three phases.

The first phase involves classroom learning, small group discussions, and role play. Volunteers learn listening and responding skills, how to handle different types of calls, emotional self-care, and more.

“In SOS, I witnessed tremendous personal growth. Admittedly, I used to be quite judgmental and opinionated. I am now more open to listening. I am still learning and that is why I’m still here after 13 years.” – D: working freelance, SOS volunteer of 13 years.


In the second phase, volunteers get to experience handling calls with the guidance of a volunteer mentor, and apply what they’ve learnt to real situations.

Finally, the last phase puts volunteers back in the classroom to reflect on their learning so far and acquire advanced empathy and hotline skills.

Ready to start your journey of self-discovery and help others while you're at it? Find out more or apply here now!

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