FamilyLine Volunteer

About us

Family Line provides a range of support to adult family members via telephone, e-mail, text and webchat.

What are we looking for?

We need reliable volunteers who’ve gained skills through their own personal or working life experiences. Volunteers are asked to commit to supporting adult family members for a minimum of 4 hours a week from home. This can be done in 2 hour blocks if you wish, but we do ask each shift to be a minimum of 2 hours. We are not currently taking on any volunteers who can only work in the evenings, as we need some day time hours to be covered. 

As a FamilyLine Volunteer you will:

• Use your skills and life experience to help families

• Refer service users for additional Family Line support including Befriending and Counselling

• Support family members to manage issues such a child behaviour and wider family relationships more effectively

• Know when to provide guidance and when it’s better to just listen

• Help service users to cope with challenges that often cause family breakdowns or lead to crises

• Support service users to recognise their own emotional and physical health needs

• Be available for a minimum of 4 hours a week to offer regular one-to-one sessions or provide immediate support on the helpline.

Family Line aims to:

- Provide both immediate and long-term support

- Help with practical information and guidance

- Provide emotional and listening support

- Help with understanding and accessing relevant services and information

- Provide regular one-to-one befriending support to service users feeling isolated

- Access to short term telephone counselling

- Refer into our many projects across England and Wales, where relevant.

Working from home

Skills

• Basic IT skills - internet & email Managing People Research
• Volunteers need to have a computer, a mobile phone, and access to the internet at home
• Professional manner
• Keep information confidential 
• Willing to take part in training sessions
• Good listening skills
• Good communication skills