It definitely takes a special kind of person, but aiding someone in distress during a crisis can provide very real personal rewards.
“Our volunteers get a great deal of satisfaction from helping people,” explained Marie McCallum, executive director of Victim Services of Simcoe County (formerly Barrie and Area VCARS).
As National Volunteer week concludes, McCallum wants to highlight the agency’s 125 active volunteers, who range in age from 21 to 78 and includes about 20 in the Midland-Penetanguishene catchment area.
“These unsung heroes offer people amazing support and help in times of crisis,” McCallum said, noting the service is offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“No matter the hour of the day or day of the year, we go out to provide immediate crisis intervention and help to people who are often having the worst day of their lives. We try to get to a client within 35 to 40 minutes.”
For the past 24 years, the organization has been training and deploying volunteers to attend crisis calls on referral from police.
“We have great volunteers, but we lose a lot of volunteers to police services,” she said, noting the volunteers appeal to police because they already have a great deal of training, experience and practical knowledge in responding to calls.
Locally, the program looks after all of Midland, Penetanguishene, Tiny and Tay, but is always on the lookout for more volunteers.
“We have volunteers in each of the areas who are all trained by our program. We are always recruiting and we are always screening people,” McCallum said, noting once accepted into the program volunteers must complete 40 to 60 hours of training that includes online and in-class work along with sessions featuring guest speakers working in a particular area of emergency services.
“Some of them have some background in this particular area, but most of them do not. Some have never had any prior experience or knowledge of police activity. They just want to help. Sometimes people have themselves been a victim of something and they know how much that support means to help recover from the trauma.”
McCallum said volunteers always work in teams of two and respond to a wide variety of situations.
“Whether a homicide, an infant death, a sexual assault of a person age two years to adult, a victim of domestic violence or human trafficking, and so many more crime types to which police call us, we are there when needed most,” she said.
“We provide assistance in a very dignified and compassionate way. We're not counselors, we're training people to be skilled at early intervention services, which would include crisis intervention; helping people to kind of calm down.
“Our interaction with a client is confidential, and so our staff and volunteers rarely receive acknowledgement of the countless hours they dedicate to bettering the life of another.”
Over the past year, the local organization’s volunteers donated approximately 14,000 hours to selflessly help those struggling in the aftermath of a crime or tragedy.
“We want them to know how much we appreciate them and offer them a little public
recognition,” McCallum said. “Some agencies could not exist without volunteers and volunteerism is an act of giving by a very special person who understands what community wellness is all about.”
To learn more about volunteer opportunities with Victim Services of Simcoe County call (705) 527-8778 for its Midland office located in the OPP’s downtown detachment building or the main Barrie office at (705) 725-7025, extension 2120.
