Last year the Samaritans of Bournemouth & District had 116 volunteers and the branch answered 45,916 calls for help, according to new figures released this week. In the South of England as a whole there were 1,869 volunteers and the service was contacted 512,959 times, by people struggling to cope.
The figures also show the number of people volunteering with Samaritans across the UK and ROI in 2013 reached a ten year high of 21,200. During the same period, the charity answered 5.23 million calls for help*, the highest number for five years.
A record 30,800 volunteering enquires were received in 2013 through the national Samaritans website in 2013. Samaritans relies entirely on the generosity and hard work of its volunteers to support those struggling to cope and is calling for new volunteers to step forward, as part of National Volunteers Week, 1-7 June 2014.
There was a 12 per cent increase in the number of emails answered nationally last year. This was accompanied by a 15 per cent increase in text messages. The 22 per cent of calls from people experiencing suicidal feelings remained the same as in 2012.
Samaritans volunteers also took part in 5,500 projects in local communities across the UK and ROI, to raise awareness of the service. These included events at festivals, schools and railway stations, among others.
Rose, Director for Samaritans of Bournemouth and District said:
“I am so grateful to our volunteers at (insert name of branch). We wouldn’t exist without the commitment of these generous people, and I want to thank them all for their hard work and dedication. We know that our callers benefit from having a real person at the end of the line, someone who is trained to really listen to them.
“It’s great to see that no matter their age or length of service, our volunteers deliver the same fantastic service through many different channels. The huge number of calls we are receiving shows that we need as many volunteers as possible. As well as listening on the helpline, there are lots of ways people can get involved at Samaritans, whether it’s doing admin, fundraising or IT, we can use their skills.”
