Parent to Parent Volunteer
How to apply for this role
Please submit an application through our Assemble system. Once you have submitted your completed application, please download and complete the P2P Introductory task for potential volunteers. Please read the information and then click on the link provided to answer the questions.
Closing date for applications is 14/07/2023
When and where
Location: home based - you must live in the UK to do this role
Time
3 hours per week. You can choose when to make calls and you can spread the hours across one or more days around your other commitments.
Support
- You will be managed by the Emotional Support Coordinator and will receive regular support and supervision
- You will have access to our e-learning modules and ongoing training will be available
- Regular meetings with other volunteers to share experiences and good practice
Training
In order to provide emotional support to parents and carers regarding their autistic children/grown-up children, volunteers need to complete our training which takes up to 10 hours of study over approximately 4 to 6 weeks. Support provided by the Emotional Support Coordinator will be ongoing.
Why we want you
Parent to Parent is the National Autistic Society’s award-winning UK wide confidential emotional support helpline which is provided over the phone by trained volunteers, who are all parents of autistic children and adults. The volunteers all have personal experience of autism and the impact it has on their own families. They are there to give parents and carers the opportunity to talk through any issues, feelings or problems they’re experiencing. They can suggest helpful strategies, signpost them to other sources of information and support, or just provide a non-judgmental listening ear. Volunteers provide this from their own home.
All volunteers must be a parent or primary carer of an autistic child or adult.
What you will be doing
- Calling parents and carers of autistic children and adults who have contacted the Parent to Parent Emotional Support Helpline
- Providing emotional support and a non-judgemental listening ear to other parents and carers
- Signposting parents, when appropriate, to information and advice services via email
- Recording details of interactions with parents on the service’s secure database
- Dealing appropriately with confidential information and documentation in line with the service’s policies
- Some occasional travel to attend training and forums will be necessary
The skills you need
- Be a good communicator as the role involves providing emotional support over the phone
- Be able to respond sensitively to the emotional and practical content of the calls
- Be emotionally ready to undertake this work and support other parents
- Be able to self-motivate and work on your own initiative
- Be able to organise, prioritise and manage your own time
- Have a positive and flexible approach
- Be able to deal with people at all levels, using tact and diplomacy
- Be able to remain calm, even in stressful situations
- Be reliable, consistent and dependable
- Be open-minded and willing to learn
- Be self-motivated and able to work on their own initiative
- Be reliable, consistent, dependable.
- Be able to use MS Outlook
- Be able to learn how to use our database and call system
What's in it for you
- Experience in a unique volunteer role which makes a real difference to
- autistic people and their families,
- Learn new skills and knowledge
- A sense of satisfaction
- Access to our high quality e-learning modules on autism
Disclaimer Please see our Privacy Policy for details of how we will use your information