Telephone Counseling
Intake and Volunteer Descriptions
The WLP's Telephone Counseling Service provides legal information to thousands
of callers annually relating to domestic violence, separation and divorce, support
and custody, the legal rights of lesbian and gay parents, reproductive rights,
employment, housing, and welfare. The overwhelming majority of our callers are
women, most of them low-income. We offer two types of volunteer experiences relating
to this service. Each is discussed in detail below. For either role, volunteers
must be:
- At least 18 years old, mature and dependable;
- Compassionate listeners, able to relate to and help many types of people;
and
- Understanding of and comfortable with feminist perspectives.
TELEPHONE COUNSELORS
Telephone counselors take information from callers about their concerns and provide
legal information and extensive referrals in response. Counselors receive in-depth
training and supervision to assure that the legal information they provide to
callers is accurate and complete.
Counselors develop skills relating to the following:
- Interviewing callers to identify their legal problems;
- Understanding the limits of legal information (as opposed to legal advice);
- Helping callers to separate legal from non-legal problems and identify problem-solving
strategies; and
- Providing useful referrals to other organizations.
Because of the intense nature of our work, counselors must be:
- Available for eight hours per week between 9am and 5pm, Monday through Friday,
for at least one school semester (counselors typically work two four-hour shifts
per week, 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. or 1:00-5:00 p.m., on different days; internships
of 20 to 40 hours a week may be arranged);
- Able to learn and understand precise and detailed information.
Counselors need not have a background in law or social services, as the WLP
provides preliminary and ongoing training, as well as close daily supervision.
Initial training requires intensive reading, listening to other counselors take
calls, and 1-2 mandatory training sessions outside of normal shifts.
INTAKE WORKERS
Volunteers who are unable to commit to the time requirement for telephone counselors
may serve as intake workers, who take initial calls from people wishing to speak
to counselors. They record basic information and assess the callers' situations
for urgency. They enter the calls into the counseling database and, when appropriate,
seek emergency intervention by a trained counselor or supervisor. Intake workers
receive training at the WLP by both administrative staff and the counseling supervisors.
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