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Samaritans were founded in 1953 by Chad Varah, a young vicar working in London. He'd spent much of his career offering counselling to his parishioners and wanted to do something to help people who had no-one to turn to.

Samaritans founder Chad Varah.

Samaritans in Scarborough are all unpaid volunteers. Many are not just listening volunteers, but also support volunteers. The organisation has around 45 volunteers at present but are always seeking new ones. It costs around Β£25,000 a year to keep Samaritan House in Scarborough running.

Paula began as a volunteer with Samaritans about a year ago and answered some questions about her role and what she gets out of volunteering.

What is your role?

I am a Samaritans listening volunteer. I encourage callers to tell their stories in their own time and space. I do not give advice, instead I offer confidential emotional support, and I deal with each call with empathy.

What do you get out of being a volunteer?

It has given me the confidence to help someone in difficulty by listening and supporting them. No two shifts are the same. When you start you never know what type of calls you are going to get. Some calls can be very difficult and you work very hard to support the caller.

A Samaritan counsellor taking a call.

The best reward is when at the end of a call the caller says; β€œYou have really helped me”. It is a wonderful feeling and makes me feel very proud. I have learnt so much about myself in a very positive way. The new skills I have acquired help me in my everyday life.

What training did you have to do?

The trainers and training was amazing. I had eight, three hour weekly sessions. The training sessions covered: type of calls, how to deal with callers, many aspects of suicide and how to be prepared for these calls.

There were, β€œskills practice” exercises each week. All these sessions helped me to become an active listener. After the eight weeks training I was allocated a mentor, an experienced listening volunteer, who showed me the β€œOperations Room” where we take the calls by telephone and by email.

I was able to listen to my mentor take calls and when we both agreed I was ready, my mentor would listen and give feedback on my calls. After four weeks we had another training session. At this I could talk over any issues or concerns. It was great as you could talk to the others in training who felt as nervous and excited as you did.

There was one more training session, followed by an individual meeting with the Director to discuss how things had gone through my training. I was a little nervous. It was here, Ann told me I was now a fully fledged Samaritan. It was a very proud moment.