Does Reach accept volunteer counsellor/therapist opportunities?

Yes, as long as the organisation and opportunity meet our criteria. People have many reasons for wanting to volunteer their professional expertise, including wishing to help a specific cause or community. Social purpose organisations provide support to communities where the state and private sector can’t or won’t. We believe that volunteering can provide significant benefits to the volunteer, the recruiting social purpose organisation, their service users and wider society. To ensure good practice in voluntary counselling roles, we have put specific guidelines in place. 

We do not accept counselling roles that:

• Have been created as a substitute or replacement for paid roles.
• Are overburdensome in terms of responsibility or time, for example a role which includes supervising paid staff, or exceeds more than 15 hours per week.
• Are inequitable and not accessible to everyone with relevant expertise. For example, a role which includes the expectation that the volunteer will pay for their own training, supervision or insurance, or make a financial contribution to the cause.