Thank you for your interest in becoming a Crisis Clinic Volunteer
Phone Worker. The Crisis Clinic provides a 24-hour centralized
service to anyone who calls, offering crisis intervention and emotional
support, as well as information and referral to appropriate resources
using our database of community referrals.
The Youth Help
Line is answered by trained teen and adult volunteers. Teens must
be at least 15 years old when applying for training.
Although you
do NOT need any special training ahead of time to do this work
we are looking for particular qualities in our phone worker including
empathy, self-awareness, enthusiasm, maturity and openness. Before
deciding to volunteer please asses whether it is a good time in
your life to start an emotionally-intense endeavor (are you emotionally
stable? overwhelmed? practicing self-care?) What
is most important for you to bring is a compassionate heart, a
willingness to commit a substantial investment of your time and
energy, and enthusiasm for experiences that facilitate growth and
change in you.
The
training is approximately 60 hours, and will improve your communication
skills both at the clinic and in other aspects of your life. In
return we ask that you commit to doing at least 200 hours of phone
work at the clinic which normally includes a four hour shift one
a week and 6 overnight shifts (except teens) spread out over the
time you are with us, if you want the training but can not do the
phone work, you may pay a small sliding-scale fee ($40-$150) instead.
If you are interested you can download
an application here and return it to:
The Crisis Clinic
Resource Network
Attn: Volunteer Coordinator
3857 Martin Way E.
Olympia, WA 98506
After your application is received, it will
be reviewed and you will be contacted for an interview. If all
goes well you will then be scheduled for an orientation designed
to answer many of your questions and to give you a glimpse of the
training and phone work.
For more information contact the Volunteer & Training
Coordinator Jennifer Yonge at jyonge@bhr.org or
360-586-2888 ext. 110
Teens can contact the Teen Volunteer Coordinator
Cassandra Bella at cbella@bhr.org or
360-586-2888 ext. 114