New Life Counselling values highly the contribution made to the organisation by volunteers.
Their dedication provides a high level of support to the organisation in providing therapeutic support and also in the areas of fundraising and business development.
Volunteer Fundraisers
As a charitable organisation New Life Counselling relies upon fundraising activities to enable us to continue to provide high quality services to those who need them. We are currently developing our team of volunteer fundraisers who will meet regularly to develop, organise and run fundraising events. Volunteers can commit time as they are able to – it may involve helping to run a once off event or it could be a more long term commitment. You can express an interest in getting involved in this work by emailing astridconville@newlifcounselling.net and we can provide you with further information on this role.
Volunteer Counsellors
The dedication of volunteer counsellors provides a high level of support to the organisation in managing referrals and providing specialist therapeutic interventions to a range of clients.
Who do we work with?
New Life Counselling is a voluntary counselling organisation committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing needs of its clients through the provision of counselling and therapeutic services. New Life Counselling offers one-to-one counselling services for children, young people, adults and families.
As a volunteer we will offer you induction and training on New Life Counselling and our policies and procedures. Once completed, you will be able to start seeing clients at either our Duncairn or Ardoyne offices in Belfast. We also provide counselling to clients in outreach locations if appropriate.
We will carefully consider the allocation of appropriate clients to volunteers.
What do we offer to volunteers?
We aim to provide a safe working environment for volunteer counsellors to develop their skills and experience whilst being supported by peers and line management in this work.
Initially you will be provided with an induction programme.
As well as one to one line management meetings and regular supervision, regular group meetings which have a strong support element and are your opportunity to identify challenges and needs, as well as celebrating successes and learning.
Requirements
This voluntary role gives the opportunity for newly qualified counsellors and trainees in the last year of their training, with limited experience, to develop their skills and gain experience.
Any counsellor hoping to volunteer with New Life Counselling must be in the last year of their Diploma course or equivalent and have at least 25 hours of face to face work.
Time Commitment
- 2-3 hours a week to meet with clients
- 1.5 hours external supervision per month
- Regular line management meetings with the Volunteer Coordinator
- Regular group support meetings (2 hours per month)
- Mandatory Training Events
- Time to complete case recording, consult and avail of support from the Therapeutic Services
- Manager around cases presenting with risk and child protection issues.
We realise the time commitment is substantial and will take individual volunteer’s circumstances into consideration.
You are very welcome to attend staff away days, planning events, socials and team meetings; this is not mandatory but can provide a great learning opportunity for volunteers and organisation alike.
Sounds good – what do I do now?
New Life Counselling apply best practice to our recruitment and selection processes when recruiting all staff and volunteers and so we advertise on our website when running a recruitment campaign for volunteers.
Individuals who respond to these advertisements will then be sent an application form to complete and return. Our annual intake of volunteers usually takes place in the summer/autumn time.
If selected you will be invited to a one-to-one meeting which will assess your suitability.
New Life Counselling also run volunteer information meetings at regular intervals which are a good opportunity for you to find out more about New Life Counselling, our work and how you can get involved with the organisation.
Contact details
Volunteer Co-ordinator
New Life Counselling
Address: 25 Ardoyne Road, Belfast, BT14 7HX
Phone 028 9039 1630
