Become a Volunteer

Volunteering at The Compassionate Friends Victoria doesn’t mean you need to be responsible for supporting another bereaved person through their grief. There are many essential tasks in and out of the office that also require volunteers, without being exposed to grieving parents and siblings.

Here are just some of our Services Support opportunities:

• Office Tasks – Processing Mail, Payments, General office administration tasks which include photocopying, packages for posting etc.
• Computer Tasks – Microsoft Word, Database
• Editing and updating of information pamphlets and booklets
• Writing Anniversary Cards
• Board of Management
• Fundraising
• Events – ‘Walk to Remember’ – The Gathering – Compassionate Employer Recognition Awards

There is no need to worry if you are not skilled or trained in any of the above, as we will train you.

At The Compassionate Friends Victoria, we will always respect that you are a bereaved parent or sibling first and a volunteer second so if you’re having a bad day, we truly understand and will support you in any way you need.

I am very happy to be a volunteer at The Compassionate Friends. Being available to share with other parents or siblings, either in person or via phone is rewarding. It is a chance to do trivial but necessary jobs and share the camaraderie of these very particular friendships…

For anyone who has had a child, sibling or grandchild die, from any cause and at any age, we have a 24 hour telephone grief support service. All calls are taken by trained volunteers who have themselves, lost a child, sibling or grandchild but are further down the ‘grief journey’.

Our grief Helpline is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can volunteer to come in to the centre and provide support to a bereaved person over the phone during the day or if business hours are an issue for you, you can volunteer to assist in the After Hours phone service.

* Specialty training required to answer grief calls.

Taking a call from a member is an opportunity for me to truly listen to someone else’s feelings, to connect, however briefly, with another person on an emotional level is somehow very rewarding. The real reward is when, after half an hour or so of listening to another’s story and hearing them settle from agitated sadness to relative calmness, they finish up the conversation and thank you for listening to them. That’s a good feeling.

A support group facilitator (along with another facilitator, or a facilitation team) helps run a monthly support group meeting for bereaved parents and/or siblings. Support group facilitators create a caring and supportive atmosphere that encourages grief sharing and peer support.

All facilitators will have received The Compassionate Friends Victoria’s four-day training (held annually) which equips them with the information and skills to run group meetings, as well as the direction on how to apply one’s own lived experience to support others. The group facilitator role is a very rewarding one and epitomises the best of peer support – in supporting others, we also support ourselves.

Support group facilitators are required to have passed the second anniversary of your loss.

* Specialty training required to answer grief calls.

It has been an extremely rewarding experience to be able to give hope, where hope seems lost forever, to those who walk this unique, terrible journey, which no one ever hopes to walk and belong to a group that no one ever wants to be a member, but is so grateful it exists.

The Compassionate Friends Victoria conducts sessions on “Grief and Loss” to the community to increase awareness about our organisation and to help educate the community on how to better support a person who has lost a loved one.

At The Compassionate Friends Victoria, we have a team of volunteer speakers who are able to speak to any group. If you would like the opportunity to be part of that team, we have excellent training and support for our volunteers. Our volunteer speakers are trained in this presentation and speak on:

• Grief and loss
• How to be helpful to someone who is in grief
• The Compassionate Friends.

Volunteers are also taught how to tailor a talk to the needs of any group such as:

• Professional
• Business
• Community Organisations

* Specialty training required to answer grief calls.

The Compassionate Friends Victoria has been a great support to me on this long and arduous “roller-coaster” ride of grief. I just needed to know that I was not alone, I was not crazy, that there was some-one else like me out there who could listen to and help share my burden.  Most importantly, through this organisation, I found hope again and the strength to “renovate” and rebuild my life – one brick at a time. This is why I volunteer, because I know I can now do for others what TCF has done for me.

Our Magazine is produced bi-monthly and posted to members. Volunteers assist in the preparation of the items to be mailed. They meet every second month on a scheduled day, usually from 10.00 am until finished; on average two and a half hours.

This is an opportunity for Volunteers to assist The Compassionate Friends Victoria and at the same time enjoy a social occasion with members living the same experience.

I treasured writing the anniversary cards. While it was very hard to read of all the people dealing with the anniversary of their child or their sibling, I got to write my daughter’s name over and over again in the signing off.