Volunteers Needed For The Distress Centre of Windsor-Essex County

The Distress Centre of Windsor-Essex County is currently recruiting volunteers to provide emotional support and emergency crisis interventions to people who seek help in Windsor-Essex and surrounding areas.  In the past year, over 3,000 area residents called the Distress Centre for support and were able to speak to a highly trained, dedicated, and caring Phone Volunteer at the Centre.


Distress Centre Executive Director Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin said calls have continued to increase over the past few years, due to factors such as an increased number of Windsor-Essex residents looking for work and more people reaching out for emotional support as opposed to waiting for a time of severe crisis.  The increase in call volumes (some months as high as 50% over previous years), has necessitated an increase in the number of Volunteers answering the phones throughout operational hours (12 noon to 12 midnight), so the Centre’s Training Team is actively recruiting interested candidates to meet with about this highly regarded and well-sought after Volunteer Experience.  “We need people who are good listeners and are non-judgmental above all else," Ponniah-Goulin said. "Our Volunteers need to be able to listen to people, support them through whatever they’re going through, encourage them, send intervention if needed and provide them with community resources if they need further or more specific types of help."


Training Candidates must be over the age of 18 and be able to work in a sometimes stressful environment handling what can be very mature and serious conversations and requests for help.  Candidates will need to pass through an extensive screening and training process which begins Jan. 27^th and must be willing to volunteer a minimum of 16 hours per month over a period of 12 months.

Anyone interested in volunteering at the Distress Centre should e-mail DistressCentreWE@gmail.com with their availability for a brief Phone Interview by Jan. 16^th.  For more information, interested candidates are encouraged to visit the Centre’s website, www.dcwindsor.com, to learn more about the organization, the service it provides the community, and the Volunteer Training Program and Opportunity itself.

Those needing emotional support, crisis intervention, suicide prevention, or community referrals, are encouraged to call 519-256-5000 between 12 noon and 12 midnight any day of the year.  The Distress Centre’s Phone Volunteers are always there to support those who reach out, “Sometimes talking helps” as the Distress Centre’s philosophy states and no-one in Windsor-Essex should ever feel alone!

by Richard Rosenthal

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