Yau, Maggie (2022) The motivations, experiences, challenges, psychological well-being and development of character virtues during training and the first year of volunteering at the Samaritans. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

My doctoral research project explores new volunteers during training and the first year of volunteering at the Samaritans. This topic is important because volunteering makes a significant impact on society, contributing to the global economy, and helping build a stronger, more cohesive and safer community (Wu, 2011). In addition, the public demand for the Samaritans’ services has been increasing, but volunteer numbers have been decreasing. The study demonstrates originality by taking an interdisciplinary approach and focusing on the training of volunteers to investigate seven branches of the Samaritans, which covers nine areas: recruitment, motivations and expectations of training and volunteering, experiences of volunteering, challenges of volunteering, training and support, learning through training and volunteering, the psychological well-being of volunteers, development of character virtues, and volunteer opinions on the Samaritans.

There were 160 new volunteers, 104 females and 56 males that voluntarily participated in the main study. The research used an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, which consisted of two phases. The first, longitudinal phase involved the new volunteers completing a questionnaire on three occasions. The second phase involved conducting semi-structured interviews with the new volunteers. The results showed that the new volunteers had both positive and negative experiences and there were challenges of volunteering, which might influence the retention of volunteers. The positive experiences of volunteering included making new friends and finding the tasks conducted as a volunteer rewarding. Negative experiences included dealing with people that misused the service provided by the organisation. The volunteers reported that the challenges of volunteering were dealing with difficult calls and problems with the support system in some branches, which might be a threat to a new volunteer’s psychological well-being and retention. The initial training was found to be useful because it covered all the topics needed to provide support to the service users. It is recommended that amendments are made to the initial training and the support system in some branches to help volunteers deal effectively with difficult calls.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Samaritans (Organization), Volunteers -- Training of, Volunteers -- Recruiting, Volunteers -- Psychology, Well-being
Official Date:	March 2022
Dates:	Date Event March 2022 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Education Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Johnston-Wilder, Sue ; Arweck, Elisabeth
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	ix, 219 pages
Language:	eng

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