As demand for services increases, our volunteers need your support

This week is National Volunteer Week, a week to show appreciation for the hundreds of volunteers who we rely on to provide crisis support by phone, chat, text and email.

We pride ourselves on the value of our volunteer program. Volunteers invest their time in Distress Centre, and in turn, we invest in them. 99% of our volunteers reported that they’ve used the skills they gained here outside of Distress Centre. See what crisis line volunteer, Shane Stronach, had to say about the impact Distress Centre has had on his life:

And see why Palvi Chauhan decided to start volunteering:

In the last few years, demand for our crisis services has consistently increased. As it increases, so does our need for volunteers. In response to this need, we have recruited, trained and supported more crisis line volunteers. In 2017, we had 530 crisis line volunteers (a 9% increase over 2016) volunteer over 54,813 hours in our contact centre (an increase of 13% over 2016).

To continue to grow our volunteer program and meet the increasing demand, we need your help. We need funding to recruit, train and support more crisis line volunteers to respond to calls, chats, texts and emails.

“Distress Centre is so grateful for the work that volunteers do on our crisis lines,” said Jerilyn Dressler, Executive Director at Distress Centre (see her message of thanks to our volunteers). “They allow us to run a critical service in our community, supporting people in crisis 24 hours a day.”

“We understand that not everyone can volunteer. It’s a big commitment. But it also takes a lot resources on our end to train and support our volunteers. For those who aren’t able to volunteer, we ask that you make a donation so we can continue to support people in crisis around the clock.”

In honour of National Volunteer Week, make a donation now in support of volunteers like Shane and Palvi. Make your donation go further by committing to a monthly donation.

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