Become a Certified Listener
Do you want to give back to your community in a meaningful and enriching way? Here is your opportunity! Volunteers are a vital part of Certified Listeners Society; every year, our volunteers will contribute more than 150,000 hours to our 24-hour online emotional support chats, providing help and immediate access to people who need emotional support.
Under the supervision of professional staff, all volunteers are carefully screened before selection and fully trained before taking emotional support chats. Throughout their volunteering experience, volunteers receive ongoing professional support and in-service education sessions. Experienced volunteers gain many life and communication skills that translate into other aspects of their daily lives.
What would you be doing?
You will be an online chat responder providing emotional support on our online chat platform.
- Providing immediate and confidential support (chat, etc.) using agency procedures and policies
- Providing information and referrals when appropriate
- Understanding what to do if you are concerned about a person’s safety
- Work with callers/chatters, volunteers, and staff in a respectful and professional manner
- Letting callers know you’re listening and someone cares
- Letting the person know there is someone here to provide individual support
What would you not be doing?
- Certified Listeners are not therapists or hold themselves out to be
- Telling people what to do or how they should live their lives
- You are not providing crisis intervention
- You are not a providing addiction counselling
What qualities are we looking for?
- Keyboarding skills
- Excellent communication skills
- Ability to build a relationship and convey empathy and emotion through an online platform
- Capacity to remain calm and effective in challenging situations
- Non-judgmental and accepting of diverse values and beliefs
- Reliability and punctuality
- Ability to work independently
- Good self-awareness and common sense
- Emotional resilience, stability and maturity
- Proficiency in the English language – both written and spoken
- Open to feedback and continuous development
- Access to a computer with reliable internet connectivity
- Access to a private space at home for the duration of your volunteering shift
- Adherence to Certified Listeners Society policies, procedures and online chat guidelines
- Ability to support Certified Listeners Society’s philosophy of empowering individuals
Our responsibility to you
We at the Certified Listeners Society provide training, protocols, policies, support, and supervision to help volunteers fulfill their roles at every stage of the way. You will never be alone. We supervise all chats and activities. We are beside you 24 hours a day seven days a week.
What we ask for you in return
Also, we ask you to work one 4-hour shift per week until you have provided 50 hours of volunteer time after successfully completing training. There is flexibility in scheduling, and you will be able to choose weekly shifts that best suit you from four designated times:
- 8am to 12pm
- 12pm to 4pm
- 4pm to 8pm
- 8pm to 12am
If you are not trained by a crisis and/or distress call centre, you can still become a certified listener volunteer. To find out how, please go HERE.
What will be expected of you
- You are at least 18 years old.
- 2 pieces of photo ID. ( Your OHIP is not acceptable as a Photo ID ).
- 2 volunteer, work, or school-related references. You can download the reference form HERE.
- 1 Non-Disclosure Agreement. You can download the agreement HERE
- 1 Police Record Check. You can find out more and download the Police Record Check Letter HERE.
- You have been trained by a recognized crisis and/or distress call centre.
- PLEASE NOTE: If you do not have this training, you can still become a certified listener volunteer. To find out how, please go HERE.
- Successful completion of all comprehensive Core Competencies training programs, quizzes and screening process.
- Reliability in fulfilling weekly shift commitments.
- Comply with Certified Listeners Society policies and procedures and our Code of Ethics.
- Maintain a confidential workplace as well as confidentiality about your work.
- Sign and comply with our Volunteer Non-Disclosure Agreement
- Participation in ongoing training and work-related development opportunities.
What is in it for you
- Receive training and insights into your own self that will stay with you for your lifetime. This training will change your life and the lives of the people around you. You will also develop and enhance your communication skills valuable in everyday personal and professional life.
- Helping people in need in your very own community is tremendously rewarding. Online emotional support is a unique opportunity to help others and help them when they need you.
Other benefits include
- Make tangible differences in others’ lives and feel connected to the community.
- Gain experience and confidence in supporting others
- Develop your communication and social skills and gain perspectives, or self-awareness
- Be a part of a supportive team
- Feeling good about yourself
- Training in emotional support
- Enhanced self-growth
- Staying informed on current social issues
- Volunteering experience in an organization where diversity is welcomed and encouraged
- Experience toward a career in social work, psychology, community outreach, etc.
- Upon finishing the Certified Listeners e-training course, you will obtain a Certificate of Completion in recognition of your new interpersonal skills.
- Confirmation of Volunteer Work upon fulfillment of your 50 Hours of volunteering commitment to our clients.
NOTE: As part of our commitment to volunteers, reference letters and confirmations of volunteering experience are provided upon request to individuals who have fulfilled the specified requirements previously stated. Certified Listeners Society can only attest to a volunteer’s skills, experience, and personal qualities. Reference letters and confirmation will state that Certified Listeners Society volunteers are engaged in emotional support, not any type of psychotherapy during the course of their volunteer work.
For your consideration
Due to the nature of the work and the various stressful situations that our clients will require support with, this position may not be a good fit for everyone, especially during this time. Timing is everything; if you are experiencing or have experienced, in the past, your own personal trauma or emotional difficulties, it is crucial to address potential triggers before considering this opportunity.
DIVERSITY: Certified Listeners Society embraces diversity and values the lived experience of those who may have been discriminated against based on race, creed, color, nationality, political or religious affiliation, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, family relationship, or disability.
Learn more about our Application Process and FAQ
Review By
Jonathan Jean Louis
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2,488
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5/5
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I loved the perogram and every thing that It came with the structure, the support system, and the resources. It offered the perfect balance of difficulty and progress, and I appreciated how it supported my development of new skills while providing me with all the tools I needed to succeed. Everything, especially the community and the engaging content, exceeded my expectations.
Review By
Zhaozhen Peng
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2,488
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4.1/5
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Good experience
Review By
Allan Mathews
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2,488
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4.4/5
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4.1/5
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The modules were good but videos that were split into one-minute lessons could be compiled into bigger videos. This allows the website to run more smoothly.
Review By
Genevieve Chapman
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2,488
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5/5
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4.1/5
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This was well organized. Thank you
Review By
Nobertha St-jacques
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2,488
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4.1/5
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Review By
Akashdeep Singh
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2,488
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Joseph Choi
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2,488
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4/5
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Amalini Collins
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2,488
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4.9/5
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Shalini Rajapandy
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2,488
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4/5
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Hasti Gholami
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2,488
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5/5
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4.1/5
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James Brown
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2,488
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4.9/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Jerome Awah
Total Reviews
2,488
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5/5
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4.1/5
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It was a real life experience acquired taking this course. The lessons content were both educational and practically inspiring. Not only did I learn what it takes to be supportive for those in an emotional situation, the lessons were a value added to my life vision. I do recommend the certified listeners course to whatsoever.
Review By
Shannon Hicks
Total Reviews
2,488
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4.3/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Liam Perkin
Total Reviews
2,488
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3.9/5
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4.1/5
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I found most of the videos to be informative. The ones that were not were the videos that explained how the tawk.to platform worked. I found it to be odd that we were being trained on something we did not have access to. Also, the videos 18a, b, and c, I found to be somewhat unhelpful because in the video, the program used is not up to date with the current one, so the buttons were not all in the same place. And sometimes the instructor would state that we need to be on a certain page, like the training test one, yet, it was not explained how to get there. Did I miss something or was that truly the case?
Review By
Jane Li
Total Reviews
2,488
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4.8/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Erin Mangulabnan
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2,488
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5/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Jennifer Dancel
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2,488
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5/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Kevin Tang
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2,488
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3.9/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Unknown
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2,488
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4/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Sara Ha
Total Reviews
2,488
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3.9/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Ash Chandrasekhar
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2,488
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4.6/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Victoria Raymer
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2,488
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3.8/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Madison Benoit
Total Reviews
2,488
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4.8/5
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4.1/5
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the training program was very easy to navigate and understand. and provided a lot of information and knowledge.
Review By
Alna Raj
Total Reviews
2,488
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5/5
Review Score
4.1/5
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I had an awesome experience during my training to become as a certified listener. this training helped me to learn lot of skills and knowledge.
Review By
Mariam Afridi
Total Reviews
2,488
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4.6/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Karina Roberts
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2,488
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5/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Zirwa Bashir
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2,488
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5/5
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4.1/5
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Review By
Ash Dunn
Total Reviews
2,488
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4.3/5
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4.1/5
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Videos were easy to understand and insightful. Some videos wouldn’t be able to work unless you clicked the link directly, and some submission formats were buggy, but nothing that nobody didn’t help me with!
Review By
Garett Boyda
Total Reviews
2,488
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4.6/5
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4.1/5
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This training was great. I’d recommend it to others interested in helping others, especially to exercise one’s listening skills in a compassionate and friendly manner. The social media presence of certified listener’s society is very responsive to concerns, and I really felt my needs were met during the training process.
Review By
Cameron Varol
Total Reviews
2,488
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3.3/5
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4.1/5
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I’d say the training process is helpful, comprehensive and gets the job done. Some issues that are worth nothing are there are some typos, which is not the type that convolutes the meaning so not the biggest deal. Another one is the material isn’t very user-friendly or accessible. One example is not being able to access the links in the slides because it’s a video. Listing them below the videos additionally would solve that problem. Another issue is the text heavy slides with where the instructor is also speaking, which makes it hard to take in all of the material for however long it stays on the screen since we also can’t copy the text from the video.
Review By
Rachael Tontodonati
Total Reviews
2,488
Effectiveness
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5/5
Review Score
4.1/5
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Review By
Humreet Grewal
Total Reviews
2,488
Effectiveness
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5/5
Review Score
4.1/5
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Review By
Ngoc Long Khang Nguyen
Total Reviews
2,488
Effectiveness
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4.6/5
Review Score
4.1/5
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Review By
Louis Raffo
Total Reviews
2,488
Effectiveness
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5/5
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4.1/5
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