Volunteer Program At LifeLine West Rand
In order to provide an effective crisis counseling service to the community, LifeLine needs to recruit and train volunteer lay counselors who have compassion for the less fortunate. The focus is on empowering others.
Growth and Counseling skills course overview:
The LifeLine Training Course has two important components, namely the Personal Growth Course and the Counseling Skills Course.
The Personal Growth Course is designed to enhance self-awareness and acceptance of self and others. It focuses on conflict management, emotional wellness and provides an opportunity for setting personal goals. This is a time where you can become aware of your uniqueness, value and potential.
Since the best learning and growth takes place through experiencing and doing rather than through passive listening and observing, the courses are based primarily on trainee participation, group discussion and experiential learning. As group dynamics and process play an important part, it is of paramount importance that trainees attend all sessions.
On completion of the Personal Growth Course, trainees will receive feedback, which will help them to assess their suitability to be trained as LifeLine counselors.
In the Basic Counseling Skills module the focus is on experiential learning rather than group sharing exercises. Focus during this part of the course is on acquiring theoretical knowledge and practical skills e.g. listening and empathy.
An interview forms part of the selection process. After successful completion of the training, trainees undertake a probation period of 9 months, which aims to hone their applied counseling skills.