Markus Baker

Samaritans

For more than a decade, I have been a Listening Volunteer with Samaritans, most of that time as a trainer and three of those years as the Director running the branch. The main skill I have developed in this time is empathy.

My Samaritans Journey

I have held various roles since training to be a Samaritan in 2012.

Listening Volunteer

Since 2012 I have been offering emotional support to those in distress. I have delivered this support mostly over the phone, but also by email and text message.

As an experienced Listening volunteer, I have mentored many New Samaritans as they take their first calls after their initial training.

Training Team

For over a decade I have been part of the training team, as a trainer, lead trainer and deputy director for training. I trained New Samaritans, delivered Ongoing Training to existing Samaritans, and taught our outreach sessions to the NHS, RAF and many other groups.

Fundraising

Boston Samaritans has no paid staff and is run solely by volunteers. It costs around £20,000 to stay open. So I have always been at the forefront of the fundraising for our branch.

Deputy Director of Marketing

In 2019, I was tasked with setting up a digital presence to aid with spreading our message and fundraising. I did this by setting up the branch website and Twitter page. Alongside this, I expanded our traditional advertising with posters, signs and banners being erected around our area.

Director

In early 2020, I was selected by the members to run the branch as Director for 3 years.

This role involved managing and keeping 30 volunteers informed, trained, happy and, most importantly, during the COVID years, safe.

My achievements in this role were:

Keeping the branch running.
Leading the Branch through the transition of new policies and implementation of new technologies.
With a third of our volunteers self-isolating, we continued to still deliver over 90% of our service.
Maintaining a good team spirit with trips, meals and regular recognition of the amazing volunteers.
Increasing our outreach training by pivoting to delivering over Zoom.
With £9k in reserves when I became director and precarious fundraising opportunities after COVID, I worked to increase our income and donations. I achieved this by collaborating with local businesses and lots of community outreach. When I finished as Director in early 2023, I had raised the £60K to keep us running for 3 years and had reserves of nearly £40K.
Our branch recieved a Civil Award from the Council for our services to the people of Boston.

After finishing as Director in January 2023, I took a break from all roles, except for taking calls to support the callers emotionally.

Leaflet for our Branch 50th Anniversary

It shares some our the changes and achievements over the 50 years.

Boston-anniversary-leaflet-2022-Reduced-Files-Size

View or Download Leaflet

Learn More About Samaritans

Charity Website

Visit the site

Boston Branch Website

Visit the site

Boston Branch Twitter Page

Visit the site

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