SJ Helpline Services was established as a Community Interest Company in 2011 to “To provide helplines, ….. and to support other …. helplines …. by providing other resources (training, publications) to assist helplines”.
We have provided helpline services to various charities since that time, and continue to do so, with the capacity to offer this service to new and expanding helplines. In particular we have grown a number of helplines from small seat very part time hours to twelve hour seven days a week services with multiple seats operating.
Staff at SJ Helpline Services have over 25 years of experience in management, training and delivery of helplines. Helplines serviced range from multi-channel young peoples’ helplines which used phone, text, webchat and email, to helplines specifically for elderly people and helplines in the mental health sector. These helplines have in time held the CLS (Community Legal Services) Quality Mark, Charter Mark and the Helplines Partnership Helplines Standard.
Training delivery has been to helpline workers as well as those working on phones like the emergency services. We take people from first helpline experience to developing more skills, working with particular sets of callers, and training for managers in supervision etc. We train at our training base in Preston, Lancashire and are equally able to travel anywhere in the country to deliver standard or bespoke training to individual helplines or groups of helplines. We also provide remote training sessions by Zoom and on line training courses in helpline skills.
Through this website we aim to provide a safe space for helpline mangers in the voluntary/charity/third sector to come together for mutual support and benefit, to find sources of information, a range of training materials and opportunities, communication with others, with the aim of helping all feel better connected and encouraged in their roles. To protect the confidentiality of clients, services and callers, no helplines are specifically referred to in any public part of this website.