VOLUNTEER FOR SWITCHBOARD
Switchboard's volunteers are the lifeblood of the charity. They provide non-judgemental support over the phone, chat, and email from 10am to 10pm, every single day of the year. Some of our LGBTQIA+ volunteers also support our day-to-day operations.
Why Volunteer for Switchboard?
Give back to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Grow and learn new skills.
Meet like-minded people.
Join Us as a Listening Volunteer
There are a variety of ways you can volunteer for Switchboard, these include:
Phone & Chat
Our phone and chat role equips volunteers with the skills needed to support both services. It requires people to be able to listen to others, create space for them to speak, ask open questions and remain calm under pressure. It can be a challenge, but if you’re someone who can listen actively without passing judgement or telling people what to do, we’d love to hear from you!
Chat
If you choose to support our chat service, you’ll communicate with users in real-time, via our web chat tool. Chat volunteers are typically people who like to use instant messaging tools in their day-to-day lives, can speak with a number of people at the same time, and who are able to create space for others to share their questions, thoughts and feelings.
When volunteering on our email service, volunteers take the time to review the emails we receive, decipher the messages and themes being communicated and spend time crafting a thorough, personalised response. This response is something service users will often keep with them for a long time. We’re looking for people who can read between the lines, write long-form communications and who have a strong attention to detail.
Training Cohorts for Marginalised Communities
Over 50s Club
We want to create a space that enables older members of the LGBTQIA+ community to volunteer with us on our phone lines and instant messaging service, whilst providing a social element that encourages volunteers to come together at our London HQ. This club will meet on Mondays and Tuesdays during the day, completing a shift either between 10am to 1pm or 2:00pm to 5:00pm.
Trans & Non-Binary Training Group
We have created a brand new dedicated training group for trans and non-binary folk, led by current trans and non-binary Switchboard volunteers. This training group will meet weekly during Tuesday daytime for 3 weeks in a row to undertake our core acceptance training and become volunteers on our phone & chat services. We hope this space enables trainees to meet new people and make friends, all while training to become a qualified Switchboard volunteer.
People of Colour (POC) Training Group
At Switchboard we are working to ensure that our volunteer membership reflects everyone within the LGBTQIA+ community. We want service users to be able to speak with volunteers who can empathise with their experiences and volunteers to connect with folks from a wide range of different backgrounds, cultures and identities. This group training group is specifically set up for people of colour.
Our volunteers hold a range of conversions on topics, which include (but are not limited to):
Bereavement
Coming Out
Faith and Religion
Gender Identities
Mental Health
Isolation/loneliness
Volunteering at Switchboard is both challenging and rewarding in equal measure.
You could speak with someone who has never voiced their thoughts and feelings before; you could communicate with a service user who has no one else to talk to.
But at the same time, some of the communications we receive are spam, hoax or abusive. Whilst there is support to deal with these types of communication, we want to ensure you know about this before applying to volunteer with us.
One thing that is guaranteed, however, is that when you volunteer with Switchboard, you will be part of a community that supports and uplifts each other.
“Whether it’s providing a safe place for a young person to explore their gender identity, supporting somebody to come out for the first time, hearing about the excitement of a new relationship, or sitting with somebody grieving a bereavement, Switchboard is for the whole community. It is an enormous privilege to be there for our service users, to listen with care and empathy and support them through their most personal challenges, fears, hopes and dreams.” - Andrew
“As a volunteer for Switchboard for over 3 years now, I have had so many meaningful conversations on all sorts of themes and topics such as coming out, body image, mental health, current social concerns and celebration chats, but no conversation is ever the same. These conversations are so important to our community that they almost feel like a ‘warm hug’ when someone says, “I feel heard and not judged”. This is why I volunteer!” - Freddie
What Other Roles Are Available for Volunteers?
Switchboard Tech Volunteer
We are on the lookout for people to join Switchboard as Tech Volunteers. This means you won’t be answering phone calls, or responding to chat messages or emails sent to us by service users, but you’ll instead be on-call to triage any technical issues faced by our Listening Volunteers.
Switchboard Safeguarding Volunteer
When communicating with service users, our listening volunteers may realise that certain references suggest a safeguarding concern is at play. We have a duty and responsibility to keep service users safe wherever possible. As such, we are on the lookout for volunteers to join us as Safeguarding Volunteers, managing cases raised by our listening volunteers, ascertaining the facts to determine whether we have enough information to make a safeguarding referral or not.
All of Switchboard's volunteers are LGBTQIA+, trained to handle conversations on difficult topics, and have the option to work either from our London office or remotely from anywhere in the UK.
