LPS Victim Services Unit seeking volunteers

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on September 27, 2024.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Volunteers Sian Townsend and Calais Hanson stand with facility dogs Cruiser and Kourt after speaking about volunteering for Victim Services on Thursday at the Lethbridge Police station.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge Police Service Victim/Witness Unit is seeking volunteers to help support others in the community during their darkest moments.

Catherine Pooley, program manager for Victim Services at LPS said Thursday that the program has been running for about 33 years and they are able to offer support to people in the middle of crisis of all different types of situations. Something they are only able to do because of their volunteers.

“Every year we do have some vacancies we need to fill and it’s our annual push to try and fill our team back up,” said Pooley.

She said they know the community’s needs and they want to make sure they are always have the right people trained up and ready to jump in when the situation arises.

“We’re putting the call out to the community to see if there are people interested in coming to join our team,” said Pooley.

She said they do extensive training with volunteers to help them be ready to meet the needs of the community in crisis and ensure that they are ready to have a trauma informed approach.

“We want to make sure that our community is able to be reflected in our team too, so we’re looking for anybody who’s interested,” said Pooley.

She explained that since the Lethbridge community is so diverse, they always look for ways to reflect that in their volunteers and therefore they are hoping to fill their vacancies with people from different backgrounds, various age groups, ethnicities, languages and genders.

Pooley said they typically run the program with 60 to 65 volunteers and they have 50 at the moment, so they are looking to fill approximately 15 positions.

“To make sure that we have all of the needs met across the community, we provide 24/7 coverage all done by volunteers, so we want to make sure we have enough people as many hands make light work,” said Pooley.

She said there are some requirements that those hoping to volunteer their time with them need to meet, but once those are met, they will be provided with extensive training.

“We do need people to be 18 years of age, we need them to have a clear criminal record check, but once they’ve passed through that we do an interview process and some job shadowing to make sure that people know what they’re signing up for,” said Pooley.

She said the intension behind that is to make sure both the volunteer and the program are the right fit for each other.

“Once we’ve made the selection of our final team, training will happen in January and then they’re paired with an experienced volunteer to be able to go out and provide on scene crisis support if an officer feels that there’s a need,” said Pooley.

She added they also offer follow up support, the opportunity to walk alongside people as they navigate the criminal justice system.

“It can be challenging, especially if you’ve never done it before. So our volunteers are incredibly compassionate experts on how to get you through that situation, they can refer you to other resources in the community and we have some remarkable resources here in Lethbridge and in southern Alberta,” said Pooley.

When talking about the type of commitment volunteering for Victim Services is, Pooley said they ask only for two shifts per month.

“The on-call shift is about 12 hours, but typically results in being in the office for two to three hours and then being available to respond should an officer require you on scene,” said Pooley.

She added that even though it is a 12-hour window volunteers typically do between four to five hours.

“It’s not a huge time commitment, you just need to be available should the call come in to be able to be there when people need you. We do ask for a two-year commitment because learning this is very substantial information and building the comfort and the competence to be on scene takes some time,” said Pooley.

Volunteers Sian Townsend and Calais Hanson spoke to reporters about what it means to them to be able to volunteer for Victim Services.

“I am new, I’ve just been here now less than a year, so it’s an opportunity to work with people all age groups, all diversity and being there for people in the community in their time of need,” said Townsend.

“I learned about VSU when I was doing my undergrad in psychology and I’ve been here almost five years now. It’s been an incredible learning experience,” said Hanson.

Applications are being accepted until Oct. 15 through a user-friendly online application form available at https://lethbridgepolice.bamboohr.com/careers/341