The Crisis Clinic of Thurston and Mason Counties

Volunteer Opportunities

Thank you for your interest in becoming a Crisis Clinic Volunteer Phone Worker. The Crisis Clinic provides a 24-hour centralized service to anyone who calls, offering crisis intervention and emotional support, as well as information and referral to appropriate resources using our database of community referrals. 

The Youth Help Line is answered by trained teen and adult volunteers. Teens must be at least 15 years old when applying for training. 

Although you do NOT need any special training ahead of time to do this work we are looking for particular qualities in our phone worker including empathy, self-awareness, enthusiasm, maturity and openness.

Before deciding to volunteer please assess whether it is a good time in your life to start an emotionally-intense endeavor (are you emotionally stable? overwhelmed? practicing self-care?) What is most important for you to bring is a compassionate heart, a willingness to commit a substantial investment of your time and energy, and enthusiasm for experiences that facilitate growth and change in you.

The training is approximately 60 hours, and will improve your communication skills both at the clinic and in other aspects of your life. In return we ask that you commit to doing at least 200 hours of phone work at the clinic which normally includes a four hour shift one a week and 6 overnight shifts (except teens) spread out over the time you are with us, if you want the training but can not do the phone work, you may pay a fee of $150 for individuals and $200 for agencies.

If you are interested you can download an application here and return it to:
The Crisis Clinic of Thurston and Mason Counties
Attn: Volunteer Coordinator
P.O. Box 13453 Olympia WA 98508

After your application is received, it will be reviewed and you will be contacted for an interview. If all goes well you will then be scheduled for an orientation designed to answer many of your questions and to give you a glimpse of the training and phone work.