YOUThES – Recruiting young volunteers for crisis help-lines Erasmus Project

Project Title

YOUThES – Recruiting young volunteers for crisis help-lines

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

Telephone Emergency Services (TES) exist for more than half a century across Europe. Each registered crisis helpline offers emotional support, crisis intervention and suicide prevention counseling in a strictly non-judgmental, anonymous way – via telephone, email and chat. Topics range from feelings of loneliness to questions of parenting, domestic and sexual violence, psychiatric illness and suicidal tendencies. All TES support is strictly confidential and free of charge, available to every human being regardless of age, gender and faith. The common feature of all crisis helplines across Europe is that all the work on the phone is done by qualified volunteer workers, carefully trained and supported by full- and part time staff members working on crisis helplines.
Most European TES-organisations have joined the umbrella organisation IFOTES Europe e.V. , the International Federation of Telephone Emergency Services. IFOTES works with 25,000 trained volunteers. 600 full- and part time staff cover over five million calls and 40.000 internet encounters annually. All volunteers benefit from training, supervision and counseling. The vast majority of volunteers are in the age range between 50 and 70 years, however, the proportion of younger people who help and advice via email and chat seek is considerably higher. For this reason the proposed YOUhTES project will explore new paths and take action to increasingly find and attract young adults to work at crisis centers and helplines.
The global objective of the project “YOUThES – Recruiting young volunteers for crisis help-lines” was to optimize TES´ work and to facilitate the rejuvenation of volunteer workforce at crisis centers and helplines. The rising demand for talks on the phone but also via chat and email support makes it necessary to find especially younger employees who are as so-called “digital natives” familiar with the new media. Among the different members many recruitment strategies and experiences exist that have been developed over the years on a regional level. The diversity of approaches to recruit volunteers in Europe is well known but never had been shared systematically to build the best practice knowledge – especially for younger people.Therefore, the international consortium of 8 NGOS from 7 EU countries (DE, IT, HU, FR, FI, NO, AT) led by IFOTES Europe e.V., entered twice a year into an intensive exchange in order to share, discuss and develop possible strategies for recruitment, motivation, skills enhancement and appropriate mentoring of young people at crisis support helplines.
The Strategic Partnership seeked to achieve an additional value of knowledge and experience to each partner throughout common reflection and exchange on best practices of recruiting young volunteers working for the emergency hotlines of the partner organizations.The partnership did mainly focus on exchange know-how and best practice in the following areas: Statistical review and exchange of age structures at TES and crisis helplines; strategies in volunteering on a national and local level; strategies in volunteering in using different media and internet; modelling and conception of best practice for recruiting young volunteers and motivation, promotion and multiplier activities for young volunteers in crisis helplines.
The results of the Strategic Partnership can be downloaded as a practice-tool with recommendations in the recruitment, selection, qualification and mentoring by young volunteers in crisis aid. The full manual is available in English as “Manual for best practice in recruiting young volunteers in Telephone Emergency Services” and is also available in a summary handbook version in 10 languages (EN; ES; FI; FR; GE; HU; IT; NL; NO; SL).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 95562,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

IFOTES Europe e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Verein zur Förderung der Telefonseelsorge Österreich-Notruf 142
• SOS Amitié France
• Magyar Lelki Elsosegely Telefonszolgalatok Szovetsege (LESZ)
• Kirkens SOS i Norge
• Studio Rucli
• Telefono Amico Italia
• Kirkon keskusrahasto