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Crisis Center volunteers come from diverse cultures and economic backgrounds. Their ages, religious beliefs, and political affiliations vary. They have different skills and life experiences. What they share is a desire to help others and a willingness to listen.
Being a volunteer can be hard. People you don’t know and may never meet except over the phone will share painful, intimate details of their lives. Most will be in difficult situations, some life-threatening. It’s these challenges that make the experience rewarding. As a Crisis Center volunteer, you:
- Improve your ability to listen and respond in the moment.
- Learn about your community and its resources.
- Meet interesting, caring people.
- Help others in a meaningful way.
- Learn that your own problems may be smaller than you thought.
Some people think it takes a special kind of person to volunteer at our agency. What it really takes is someone who cares, someone who’s willing to put his or her own problems on hold and focus on another person’s need.
Crisis line volunteers provide counseling and emotional support to people who are abused, depressed, grieving, suicidal, homeless, or mentally ill. Some volunteers have mental health backgrounds, but many don’t. A 10-week training program teaches new volunteers everything they need to know.
During training, volunteers receive a free, one-hour screening from an outside mental health professional. The screening ensures that prospective volunteers have the emotional stability to answer crisis calls and can be nonjudgemental. The latter is important because when people call us with a problem, we can help best by exploring options and not judging them or their choices.
After training, volunteers work one four-hour shift per week. Our clinical staff always is available to consult on difficult calls and to debrief afterwards. Staff also supervise counseling interns who earn hours towards professional certification.
Crisis line volunteers must be 21 or older, complete our crisis line training program, pass a free screening from an outside mental health professional, and adhere to our ethics and confidentiality policies. Training classes are held in January and August. For more information, contact our volunteer coordinator, Mike Brungardt, at 925.939.1916 extension 135 or mikeb@crisis-center.org.
Trained volunteers provide counseling and support to children, teens, and adults who are mourning the death of a loved one. Individual counseling is conducted in clients’ homes and in our Walnut Creek office. Group counseling is conducted at our agency and at sites around the county. A seven-week program teaches volunteers everything they need to know.
During training, volunteers receive a free, one-hour screening from an outside mental health professional. The screening ensures that prospective volunteers are able to be effective grief counselors. Oftentimes volunteers have suffered the death of a loved one themselves and want to help others cope with loss. This is commendable; however, sufficient time needs to have passed for them to have healed before they attempt to counsel others.
After training, volunteers are assigned clients who live close to them so that it’s easy to get together for counseling sessions. Spanish-speaking volunteers are in demand and usually are assigned to Latino families.
Grief counseling volunteers must be 21 or older, complete our grief counseling training program, pass a free screening from an outside mental health professional, pass a criminal background check, and adhere to our ethics and confidentiality policies. Training classes are held once a year. For more information, contact our volunteer coordinator, Mike Brungardt, at 925.939.1916 extension 135 or mikeb@crisis-center.org.
Licensed psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and clinical social workers donate their time to conduct free, one-hour face-to-face screenings of every person who wants to become a crisis line or grief counseling volunteer. The screenings usually are held in the screener’s office at a time that’s convenient for the screener and the prospective volunteer. Afterward, the screener submits a written, confidential assessment to our staff.
About 25 professionals currently volunteer as screeners, and more are needed. For information, contact our crisis line director, Judi Hampshire, LMFT, at 925.939.1916 extension 110 or judih@crisis-center.org.
Volunteers are gems who dedicate their time and talent to the Crisis Center. They bring help and hope to our clients. While their service to the organization is priceless, we honor our volunteers with tokens of appreciation.
Pearls are individuals who receive a certificate and Crisis Center mug when they complete one of the following: crisis line training, grief counseling training, or youth services training.
Opals are individuals who receive a Crisis Center t-shirt when they complete one of the following: 250 hours on our crisis lines, counsel 15 grief clients or provide one full year of support group facilitation, or serve one year and make 25 presentations in our youth services program.
Sapphires are individuals who receive a Crisis Center water bottle when they complete one of the following: 500 hours on our crisis lines, counsel 50 grief clients or provide three full years of support group facilitation, or serve three years and make 50 presentations in our youth services program.
Emeralds are individuals who receive a Crisis Center license plate frame when they complete one of the following: 1000 hours on our crisis lines, counsel 100 grief clients or provide five full years of support group facilitation, or serve five years and make 100 presentations in our youth services program.
Rubies are individuals who receive a personalized tile on the Crisis Center’s “Wall of Caring” when they complete one of the following: 2,500 hours on our crisis lines, counsel 250 grief clients or provide 10 full years of support group facilitation, or serve 10 years and make 250 presentations in our youth services program.
Diamonds are individuals who receive a highly personalized gift from the Crisis Center when they complete one of the following: 5,000 hours on our crisis lines, counsel 500 grief clients or provide 15 full years of support group facilitation, or serve 15 years and make 500 presentations in our youth services program.
Registration Form
Individuals interested in volunteering can fill out an application on-line. Click here.
This is the only formal award that we bestow. It’s named in honor of a former crisis line director at our agency and honors an outstanding individual whose unselfish work for the well-being of others embodies the highest standards of volunteerism. These are the criteria:
- Recipient must be a current volunteer.
- Recipient must be a volunteer for five consecutive years or longer.
- Recipient must epitomize one or more of our five core values—compassion, integrity, inclusion, accessibility, and collaboration.
- Priority is given to volunteers who contribute in multiple ways—for example, in multiple programs, as a program volunteer and as a board member, as a crisis line counselor and as a crisis line trainer, or as an individual grief counselor and a group facilitator.
- Priority is given to volunteers who provide direct services to clients (such as crisis line volunteers and grief counseling volunteers).
- Individuals can only receive the award once.
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