Prevention & Intervention Volunteer Training

Battered Women’s Support Services offers the Violence Prevention and Intervention Training Program twice a year, typically beginning in March and September. Training is held for a total of 12 weeks with a session held each Friday from 9:30-4:00.

BWSS follows a popular education model for our training. We work from a feminist, anti-oppression perspective and provide skill based training grounded in a strong theoretical framework of violence against women in relationships. Participants will learn crisis intervention, peer counselling, group facilitation skills, criminal, family and immigration law, safety planning, assessment & referral and much more.

Volunteer positions are required to be filled during the daytime, Monday to Friday. If you are working full time during weekdays, you will have to adjust your work schedule to accommodate the practicum and volunteer work or decline from taking the training. (There will be some additional opportunities for women to volunteer during evenings and weekends in other programs).

The topics covered in the training are intense and require personal exploration. Please look over the calendar (included with the application package) to ensure you understand the intensity of the topics/training.

Participation

The training is facilitated as much as possible in a popular education model requiring a high level of participation from everyone. Participation is expected in both large group and small group settings. This can be challenging for some women.

All women who volunteer with us provide crisis support and direct services are first required to complete the volunteer training. Participation is also required in terms of attendance. During the volunteer training only one session can be missed. If you know in advance that you may have to miss more than one session we recommend that you apply for the next training session.

Volunteer Commitment

Many volunteers continue their volunteer work at BWSS well beyond their minimum hour commitment. In total we require a minimum of a 180 volunteer hours from volunteers. The commitment hours are completed in several areas, and usually take place over 6-12 months. The main areas are outlined as follows:

A) Intervention and Support Program

Volunteers generally work one four hour shift per week providing support and intervention to women on our crisis and intake line. In total 135 hours are spent volunteering in this area. These hours include an initial 25 hour supervised practicum, ongoing work on the crisis and intake line, and the facilitation of at least one 10 week support group.

B) Violence Prevention and Education Program

Battered Women’s Support Services believes that ending violence against women requires not only providing intervention and support services for women, but also involves engaging in violence prevention work. This includes delivering workshops and presentations in a variety of community settings. BWSS also attends events, information fairs, festivals, and participates in community activities to promote our programs and services and to educate the public about violence against women. Additionally, BWSS is committed to social activism and we make a presence at all related events and rallies. Upon completion of the training program, volunteers will be required to contribute 15 hours of their volunteer commitment in this area.

C) Social Enterprise, Community Involvement, and Direct Service Support

The final 30 hours of the minimum volunteer commitment can be used to volunteer in our social enterprise, My Sister’s Closet, providing information tables, working on special research projects, or providing court accompaniment, interpretation, or other additional support to women as directed. The allotment of these hours will be agreed upon with the Crisis and Intake Line Coordinator during training based on the needs of BWSS and the particular expertise of volunteers.

Interviews

More women apply for the training than we can accommodate and we need to ensure women’s readiness and suitability for the training and volunteer work. After we receive applications, we will take some time to review them.  Please be advised that only short listed applicants will be called for interviews which are a required part of our screening process.

To receive more information about the training and volunteer work or to find out how to apply please contact Jaclyn at 604-687-1868 ext. 303 or intake@bwss.org

Thank you for your interest in our training program. Our training program is well recognized in the anti-violence community and we look forward to your possible involvement with us!