Volunteer with us

Volunteering with SOS Help is a heartening and inspiring experience

SOS Help relies on its volunteers to provide our year-round listening service. There are two ways to volunteer: as a listener, you answer the phone and listen to callers, and as a supporter, you help with roles such as logistics, publicity, and general running of SOS Help.

Many volunteer opportunities are available and recruitment sessions are arranged regularly. These sessions enable potential recruits to meet and talk with current volunteers; it's the best way to find out if you would like to join us.

If you are interested, please e-mail us at or see the latest volunteer news to find out about our next recruitment session dates.

Listeners

Listeners must be over 18 and live in the Paris area. We ask them to

Commit to at least 15 months with SOS Help
Undergo initial training (find out more about training sessions)
Commit to 3 shifts (4 hours each) and 1 ongoing training meeting per month

Listeners are selected after two interviews, the first of which is conducted by a current listener, the second by a professional therapist in order to gauge the potential listener's capacity to be warm, empathic and non-judgmental.

Friends & Supporters

SOS Help is funded by donations and regular fundraising events. We need help to keep the line open and provide continuing support to our team of Listeners.

Our Friends are an informal network of people who through their enthusiasm help up raise funds either individually or as part of our ongoing program of events. We hold regular get togethers and keep our Friends informed about our work.

Our Supporters make a more regular commitment and have the skills to help us with specific projects and tasks. Supporters are recruited as full members of SOS Help and are given appropriate support and training. We are particularly looking for people to help us to promote our work on social media.

If you would like to know more please get in touch with us at volunteering@soshelpline.org.

Latest Volunteer and Recruitment News

My journey as a listening trainee...

Training

All Volunteers are required to undergo listener preparation. This ensures that all members are educated on the best way to help our callers.

Listener training

We conduct listener preparation sessions twice per year. Typically the training schedule is as follows:

Saturday all-day training session
Double listens (shifts alongside experienced listeners)
Four evening training sessions

A mental health professional will use the training sessions to cover the following:

Introduction to basic listening skills
Questioning techniques
Self-awareness in interpersonal transactions
Reformulation
Helping caller gain perspective
Empathy
Communication
Distinguishing facts and feelings in communication
Looking at our own support networks
Being guided in how to become effective listeners

Supporter Training

In-house session given by experienced listeners