Samaritans needs nightshift volunteers (From Salisbury Journal)
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Samaritans needs nightshift volunteers
11:24am Monday 15th October 2012 in News By Jill Harding
THE Salisbury branch of Samaritans is taking a new approach to recruiting volunteers from the local community to ensure they can continue to help people through the night.
The charity is looking for people who can specifically do night shifts, which can sometimes be difficult for other volunteers to cover.
Students, recently retired people and others without work or family commitments are being asked if they could give up one night every other week to support people in crisis.
Fran Holdsworth from Samaritans said: “Samaritans provides support to people who are struggling to cope, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “Until now we have asked all our volunteers to share in the night shifts, but those with work or family commitments find these shifts hard to cover. “We are now looking for people who are at a point in their lives when they could volunteer specifically for these duties.
“Keeping our centres open through the nights is particularly important because those are the times when many people need someone to talk to. “Their concerns and worries come to the fore, their friends and family are in bed, and there is nowhere else to turn.”
If successful the new recruitment scheme will later be used nationwide.
To find out more about joining Samaritans phone 08705 62 72 82 or go to samaritans.org.
