Volunteering with Circles South East
Volunteering with Circles South East
Volunteer specification
Many people thinking of volunteering with Circles South East are put off, thinking they need have qualifications and experience in Psychology, Criminology or related fields. This is not the case*. All we require from people thinking of approaching us to volunteer are the following qualities:
- Reliability
- The ability to commit two to three hours a week (initial training takes two days)
- Emotional stability and maturity
- An ability to maintain personal boundaries
- To be 21 or over
That’s it! We do however insist that you undertake a minimum 2 days of initial training before you can start.
If you elect to undertake our initial training course, you will be introduced to:
- Attitudes and beliefs towards sexual abuse
- The role and responsibilities of a Circles volunteer
- How Circles work
- Motivational interviewing techniques
- Sexual offender treatment methods
- Boundaries and self-care
- How to engage with sexual offenders effectively
If you then elect to volunteer with our Adapted Circles Project, you will receive a further day of training introducing you to:
- Awareness raising of Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Intellectual Disability
- Working effectively in these fields
- Adapted theoretical methods (including Adapted Treatment programmes)
- Relevant skills practice
Circles South East delivers the following services which involve different initial training courses. This training is open to new volunteers or to existing Circles South East volunteers.
Our Youth Project training course will introduce you to:
- Attitudes and beliefs towards young people displaying harmful sexual behaviour
- Roles and responsibilities of being a youth project volunteer
- How the youth service works
- The Youth Justice System
- Safeguarding training (level 2)
- Emotional, physical and sexual development
- Attachment theory
- Treatment methods
We also provide support packages, or “Forums” for survivors of sexual violence. Our initial 2 day training offers introductions to:
- Motivational interviewing
- Understanding the perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence
- Wellbeing (volunteers and clients)
- Restorative approaches
- Victimology
Circles South East provides supplementary training to all volunteers covering areas such as:
- Risk assessment of sexual offending
- Skilled Helper training
- Safeguarding (level 2)
- Desistance theory
- The Better Lives model
- Sexual Offender treatment
- The role gender plays in sexual offending
All our training is free, and is certificated so can be added to CVs. There is no commitment required in attending our initial training courses – it’s just a chance for you to get to know us and for us to get to know you, and to make sure this is the sort of volunteering role that will suit you.
Why not give it a try!
*The exception to this is those considering offering counselling skills, who need a recognised qualification together with a least 100 hours of clinical experience in counselling.