Womankind Helpline Supporter

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Womankind works with survivors of gender-based

violence to rise above trauma and build a path to healing. We bring critical

resources and deep cultural competency to help Asian communities find refuge,

recovery and renewal from domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual

violence.

Purpose/Overview:

Calling the 24/7 multilingual helpline opens the door to all the services of

Womankind. Highly trained helpline supporter (HS) are the first responders of

these calls. They provide emotional support and provide crisis counseling and

help develop a basic safety plan to use if callers are not yet ready to seek

help. They give information about Womankind’s residential programs and basic

legal procedures such as filing for police reports and obtaining orders of

protection. They also answer general questions about domestic violence, human

trafficking, sexual violence, later in life abuse, and child abuse.

Helpline supporters are required to provide at least 192

hours of helpline coverage. The minimum requirement is 4-hour shifts once a

week for 1 year. During helpline shifts, HS are expected to answer incoming

calls, conducting residential screening, provide assistance to callers, record

the interactions in helpline logs, and enter these into Womankind’s database.

Supervisor: Helpline Manager

Location: Remote

Key Responsibilities:

• Answer helpline calls
• Provide emotional support to the caller as needed (crisis counseling)
• Provide appropriate emergency housing, legal, or other referrals
• Take messages from the caller or transfer calls to extensions
• Conduct residential screening
• Log calls into agency’s database
• Report child abuse or suicidal or homicidal calls to the supervisor

Administrative Task

• Organize Helpline virtual files, send out emails, make phone calls

or complete any administrative tasks assigned by Helpline staff.

Expected Time Commitment: 192 hours within 12 consecutive months

Schedule: · Minimum one 4 hour shift a week during

• 9am-7pm hours Monday-Friday
• All volunteers must attend monthly team meeting on 2 nd Wednesday of the month
• Must attend minimum one (15-30minutes) 1-1 supervision per month with Helpline manager
• For the training period Volunteer must be available during the business hours
• (10am-6pm, Monday -Friday) to receive all necessary training and shadowing time.

Qualifications:

• Basic understanding of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual violence
• Comfortable using MS Word, MS Excel, and the internet for email and searches
• Must be fluent in English
• Proficient in speaking an Asian language, preferred

Orientation and Training

Requirements

• 1 hour of volunteer orientation training
• 12 hours of Helpline Orientation training (Live or recorded)
• 12-15 hours of hands-on training (During scheduled shift)
• 2 hours mandated reporting training (During scheduled shift)

Support/Continuing Education

• DV/HT/SV 101 training
• Legal training: basic immigration law, family law
• Any other training suggested by Helpline Manager

Measure of Success:

Upon finishing all the required training plus 12 hours of observation of answering helpline calls, new helpline supporters can begin to answer helpline calls on their own. All HS can complete

administrative work as directed by helpline staff, continue service without any discrepancies, be on time for the shift, and be respectful of all policies.

Age Requirement: 18 years or Older

Benefits:

• Helpline Supporters will be provided with a Certificate of Participation upon finishing their committed time of volunteering with Womankind
• Access to all trainings provided by Womankind
• Access to all training provided by the Family Justice Centers

Selection Process:

A volunteer must contact the Manager of Volunteer Engagement for an interview. If selected, she/he/them will attend the volunteer orientation training. Upon completion of this

training, the volunteer will be scheduled for Helpline orientation training, and

then assigned a helpline shift.

If interested, please reply to this opportunity, or email me directly at volunteer@iamwk.org

Thank you as always for your support!