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• On shift you will take contacts from Young People who rely on the service that Childline offers. Childline is not there to solve problems, we are a listening service for Young People and in each contact your role is to engage the Young Person, explore their situation and to support them in deciding their next steps. • The contacts you would take from Young People can come in 3 ways. Traditional phone call contacts, live chats via instant response typed messaging or less commonly via 'PIBS' which are essentially emails sent by Young People in the knowledge the response will not be 'live' and instant. • Your weekly shift will consist of 3hrs30mns counselling, sandwiched between a 15mns brief before your shift and a 30mns debrief post shift. This is to ensure that you can start and finish your shift with any support you require from your Supervisors.
• Childline offers a full 12 week online training programme to new volunteers. This consists of one 4 hour session per week, which is similar to the shift commitment we ask for post training. • During the training, you will meet other Volunteers in your cohort and have access to your 2 dedicated Childline Trainers. • As part of the training, you will also go in person to the London Base for observation and mentored shifts which give you a face to face insight into how the Counselling Room works. • You will also have access to a dedicated Volunteer Coordinator to give you a London Base tour (optional) and generally be on hand to answer any questions or queries you may have - big or small, if they matter to you they matter because you are giving your time to volunteer and Childline wants to offer you every level of support. • Once you pass through training and become a qualified Childline Volunteer Counsellor, the development opportunities do not stop there. You will have access to a multitude of mandatory and optional training courses that are accredited and 100% free to all Volunteers. • Childline London also organises regular talks with professionals and people with lived experience of many of the issues the Young People who use our service face. These are always well received by our Volunteers who generally have a keen thirst for further learning in their roles.
40 shifts per year. Each shift last 4hrs 15mns. Normally Volunteers will offer a shift per week for 40 weeks of the year. This allows for 12 weeks where other commitments happen – work, family, holidays etc. However there is some flexibility around this to work your 40 shifts in a way that fits around your commitments.
