Domestic Violence Hotline Volunteers: Lifeblood Of An Agency

Domestic Violence 1 Running head: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Domestic Violence Hotline Volunteers: Lifeblood of an Agency A Qualitative Case Study Travis Sky Ingersoll

Domestic Violence 2

Domestic Violence Hotline Volunteers: Lifeblood of an Agency Each year in the United States of America, 5.3 million women are abused by their intimate partner, and more tragically, 1,232 are murdered (American Institute on Domestic Violence, 2007). Widespread public awareness of domestic violence was brought to the forefront during the 1970s. In conjunction with the feminist rights movement, a grassroots effort, spearheaded by domestic violence victims, called attention to the injustices suffered by women at the hands of their male companions. As the messages regarding domestic violence spread, the practice of men controlling women through aggressive force was subject to public scrutiny (Hatashita, Hirao, Brykczynski & Anderson, 2006). It was during that age of social upheaval and change that the Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County (DAP) was formed. In 1976, DAP was founded with the purpose of providing safety, advocacy and supportive services otherwise unavailable to victims of domestic violence within Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Initially, DAP was exclusively operated by volunteers who provided the services of crisis intervention and hotline support to victims of domestic abuse. Since those early years, DAP has evolved into an agency offering an array of services to victims of domestic violence including: legal aid, housing options, counseling services, educational outreach and medical advocacy. Each year DAP provides services to more than 5,000 residents of Delaware County (Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County, 2007). Of particular relevance to this exploratory case study, is DAP’s volunteer “hotline” call center. The hotline is one of the earliest components of the agency, and remains one

Domestic Violence 3 of the most important services the agency provides. Staffed almost exclusively by volunteers, the hotline provides invaluable services to victims of domestic violence. The importance of hotline volunteers within domestic violence agencies should not be underestimated. As stated by Kinzel and Nanson (2000) “Telephone crisis lines would not be able to operate without volunteers” (p.126). The role of a hotline volunteer is to listen and support the caller, to provide useful information regarding the realities of domestic violence, connect callers to appropriate services within their own agency, and to offer resources and referrals to other agencies (Kinzel & Nanson, 2000). Domestic violence hotlines provide an extremely important service to individuals in crisis, offering what may be the only source of support many callers have, when reaching out for help regarding their abusive situations. One of the challenging aspects of being a domestic violence hotline volunteer, are all of the traumatic experiences one has to listen to. Sometimes volunteers have negative reactions to the stories they hear, resulting in nightmares, intrusive thoughts and emotional stress. The volunteers that leave tend to do so because they have been negatively affected by their volunteer experience. Researchers have coined the term “Compassion Fatigue” to describe the natural stressful consequences of helping those who are suffering, which may result in the avoidance of activities and feelings, isolation, denial, dissociation and minimization. Methods to help prevent compassion fatigue, and therefore high volunteer turnover, include ascertaining and addressing the volunteers’ needs, education about the potential negative affects of listening to traumatic experiences, and psychological debriefing (Kinzel & Nanson, 2000).

Domestic Violence 4 Purpose of the Study I conducted this study with the intentions of providing the Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County useful information in the recruitment and retention of their hotline volunteers. As an intern at DAP, when I’m not providing one-on-one counseling services, I often spend my time answering hotline calls. What I’ve noticed since being placed at DAP, is how calm and content the majority of hotline volunteers appear. I answer the calls, so I know first hand how stressful many of the stories relayed by abused callers are. You would think that with the traumatic nature of the position, the “hotline” would be prone to high turnover rates induced by volunteer burnout. However that is not the case, and presents a phenomenon worth exploring. I wanted to know what contributes to DAP’s high level of volunteer satisfaction and retention rates. What role does the agency play in taking care of their volunteers? I also wanted to gain a better understanding of the personality characteristics, personal motivations, and coping mechanisms used by DAP hotline volunteers. In addition I wanted to explore what could be done to make the experiences of volunteers even more comfortable, rewarding and enjoyable. It is my hope, that this exploratory qualitative case study will provide data to help volunteer managers better recruit and retain their volunteers, both within the hotline room and throughout the agency.

Vignette: Just Another Day On The Hotline If the agency were a living being, the hotline room would be the heart. Each incoming call would be a heartbeat, pumping preparatory information to the various service

Domestic Violence 5 departments within the agency. The hotline room itself is small, consisting of three desks equipped with resource binders, telephones (including one for the hearing impaired), one computer, file cabinets, volunteer mailboxes, and shelves with various intake forms and information packets. Various postings of upcoming trainings, helpful hints, inspirational quotes, and useful numbers are tacked to the beige colored walls, alongside framed pictures of past and present volunteers. A zig-zagging partition, filled with windows, separates the hotline room from the other offices and upper hallway. The windows are strategic, allowing hotline volunteers, counseling and legal staff the ability to visually communicate when questions or needs arise.

It was a typical busy Monday characterized by intermittent “ding-dong” sounds from the doorbell, people scuttling from room to room, and clients moving in a constant flow alongside their assigned counselors, into florescent-lit rooms filled with wide tables to complete intakes and counseling sessions. The hotline room had been buzzing with energy and incoming calls. The day was beginning to wind down and calls were coming in less frequently. Staff and volunteers were finally getting the chance to decompress and process the day’s work. The hotline lights up with a call. A volunteer answers to the sound of a very loud and frantic woman on the other end. The woman on the other end of the call is yelling loudly, causing the hotline volunteer to squint and clench her teeth. The volunteer, in an effort to protect her eardrums, continuously pulls the phone away from her ear. The other hotline volunteers can hear the woman as she yells into the phone “I can’t take it anymore! I feel like hurting my children! It’s like they are possessed! Who are they? What are they? If I can’t calm them down before my boyfriend

Domestic Violence 6 comes home from work, he’s going to hurt me!” The volunteer who is listening to this becomes more and more distraught. She uses her free hand to rub her forehead, trying to calm herself. Her eyes and body language indicate that the stress of the call is affecting her greatly. Slowly, as people around the agency begin to sense that there is a crisis under way, more and more staff begin to gather in and around the hotline room. They communicate in whispers and looks, letting each other know what is going on. As the volunteer tries to get information about the caller’s identity and location in order to notify the authorities in case of evident child abuse, those around her let her know they are there for her through looks of empathy and encouragement. As one person brings her some snacks from the kitchen, another provides a glass of water. The volunteer is supported throughout the call by her co-volunteers and staff, and as a result she is able to retain her composure and work through the stressful ordeal. By the end of the conversation nearly two hours had passed, and the caller’s crisis had been diffused. Although the caller never disclosed any identifying information, she was provided with resources to access the help she needed. As soon as the volunteer hung up, her co-volunteers and staff were there to talk, to praise her for a job well done, and to offer the support she needed to process the challenges she just faced.

Methods Due to the sensitive and confidential nature of what is communicated within the hotline room, there were significant limitations pertaining to the kind of information that could be gathered and discussed. The appropriate information I collected was accumulated

Domestic Violence 7 through observation, perfunctory reviews of hotline call logs, and one-on-one interviews with hotline volunteers. Since this exploratory case study focused on the hotline room, or more specifically, the volunteers who operate within it, I chose to limit the amount of detailed information regarding the subject matter of caller/client interactions. The data was collected and analyzed for the purposes of enriching the experiences of current volunteers, helping to avoid burnout and high turnover rates, and enhancing the recruitment efforts of the volunteer coordinators and trainers.

Interviews I conducted one-on-one interviews with six hotline volunteers. The interview questions were submitted to, and approved for use by my internship supervisor. Each interview took place within the hotline room during the volunteer’s working shifts. The interviews were recorded and transcribed by a digital audio recorder and computer. Before each interview I discussed the nature of my case study, explained that involvement was completely voluntary, and offered complete anonymity to anyone who requested it. No volunteer desired anonymity. However, I still omitted any directly identifiable information from the interview transcripts and assigned each interviewee a numerical label based on the order in which the interviews were completed. The data gained from interviews were categorized and analyzed according to the themes of the questions posed. A complete list of interview questions if provided in Appendix A.

Observations

Domestic Violence 8 Observations regarding social support behaviors, coping behaviors, and communications for assistance were recorded on index cards while working alongside volunteers during my times in the hotline room. Without any expectations or hypotheses, I simply watched how those around me interacted with each other, reacted to calls they answered, and behaved when they felt uncomfortable or unprepared with a caller’s questions or concerned. Although I tried to catch as much as I can, I most likely missed more subtle forms of non-verbal communication, and may have misinterpreted communications and behaviors due to my own personal biases and expectations.

Document Information In order to get a feel for what percentage of calls could be described as “highly stressful” I randomly reviewed stacks of hotline call logs. Every few days I would sort through the call logs and assign them to three categories: a) Information gathering calls, b) Counseling/Appointment calls, and c) Crisis calls. Information gathering calls consisted of people looking for directions, requesting phone numbers to outside resources, or asking about the services of the agency. Counseling/Appointment calls were either when a client or non-client just wanted someone to talk to. Such a caller was not in immediate danger, but was having some problems and needed someone’s ear to listen. I also included callers looking to set appointments to see counselors in this category due to the similar nature of the calls. Crisis calls were where the person on the other end of the line was in immediate need of help or danger. Such calls were the one’s I regarded as being particularly stressful, and most likely to lead to compassion fatigue. Crisis calls often included traumatic stories of violence and domestic abuse.

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Findings Of those interviewed (N=6), time spent volunteering in DAP’s hotline room ranged from 2 months to 12 years. The ages of the interviewees ranged from 17 years to the upper 60s. For the majority of the volunteers interviewed, working on the hotline was their first volunteer experience, and although some had volunteered for other departments in the agency, the majority of their time was spent answering hotline calls. Only one interviewee had any significant volunteer experience before DAP, and one half of the interviewees stated that they were the only ones in their friend/family cohort who volunteered. Of the call logs examined, 27 were categorized as Information gathering calls, 39 as Counseling/Appointment calls, and 24 as Crisis calls. Through my observations, I noticed that the three most experienced hotline volunteers appeared very close to one another. After interviewing them, I found that they had all been hotline volunteers for over 10 years, and were friends within and outside of the agency. When asked what they liked most about volunteering at DAP, all three of them mentioned the nice people they work with and the great friends they’ve made. This finding was consistent with Okun and Schultz’s (2003) research, which indicated that for older adults, volunteer motivations primarily centered on expanding one’s social network. A few observations I made about the DAP hotline volunteers in general, were that there were very few younger adults (late-teens to early twenties) involved, and there were no male volunteers. Reasons behind the low numbers of younger volunteers could simply be related to changing motivations throughout the lifecycle. Research indicates

Domestic Violence 10 that for younger adults, volunteering is a way to explore social issues and to develop the skills necessary for career advancement, and as people get older, social motivations for volunteering increases (Faver, 2001; Fletcher & Major, 2004; Okun & Schultz, 2003). When I asked a few of the veteran hotline workers if they ever had any male hotline volunteers, they said “never”. They didn’t know why, but men in general were rare in the agency. A few of the volunteers commented that I was the first male they’ve ever worked with at DAP. According to Kinzel and Nanson (2000) “many agencies believe that the victim will not be comfortable talking to a male, and that male volunteers will not be able to understand the experiences of assaulted women” (p. 127). However, such an attitude does not appear to be the case at DAP, leaving the underlying reason for the absence of males a mystery. Perhaps men don’t feel that they will be welcomed, or don’t feel that domestic violence is a male issue? Further analysis is needed to answer such important questions. I was particularly curious about what motivated people to volunteer at domestic violence agencies. According to Fletcher and Major (2004) “a better understanding of the motives that underlie professional volunteerism may be useful in recruiting and training people to give back to their communities” (p. 109). The first thought that came to my mind was that there may have been some personal experience with domestic violence, and that volunteering at an agency servicing domestic violence victims aided in personal healing and built a sense of empowerment. Many of the interviewees did mention the desire to help women out of abusive situations, but did not relay that they were motivated by personal experiences. On the contrary, a few even expressed that they came from “stable” environments where such abuse did not exist. However, there was one

Domestic Violence 11 interviewee whose life experiences motivated her to fight for the rights of women. She shared the following: “When I was raised, we saw women’s lib coming up. I had been raised by an Italian immigrant dad who thought he was the head of the household and we respected that. I would see a lot of men talking down to women. I was someone who spoke up, and I would do so with my dad, even though I would occasionally get smacked for my rebelliousness. I saw my mother put up with his stuff in a different way than I would, and I thought to myself, I’ll never put up with that! I’d never marry a man like that! So that environment got me into wanting to help out women” Other stated motivations for volunteering on the hotline included: the need to stay busy, having the opportunity to use the working skills gained throughout life, learning more about the situations of abused women, and resume building. However, the main theme that emerged was that volunteers wanted to give something back. People wanted to make some kind of positive difference in the world. Such motivations are common among social service volunteers (Brunero, 2002). Hotline volunteers felt that their job was very rewarding, they were able to help people get out of scary and abusive situations, and that what they did made a difference. It was an opportunity for them to stop focusing on themselves and recognize the problems of those around them. As one interviewee stated: “I find that it is rewarding that sometimes you get the chance to help somebody who really otherwise wouldn’t have that possibility of help, and that keeps me coming back. Even if it’s only once a year, that’s one person who didn’t fall between the cracks.”

Domestic Violence 12 When asked what they liked most about volunteering at DAP, common themes emerged. Besides the satisfaction of helping others in need, the most common response had to do with how friendly and supportive the staff and co-volunteers were. When anyone needed someone to talk to after a tough call, there was always an ear available to listen. Anytime a volunteer had a question or concern, those around them readily offered suggestions and assistance. Such accounts were confirmed through my observations. I witnessed many instances where a hotline worker, needing help, would tap on one of the partition windows and a staff member would quickly come to their aid. I also witnessed how emotionally available other volunteers and staff were when helping a volunteer process stressful calls they received. Another common answer to what they liked most about volunteering for DAP, was the extensive 45 hour training they received. All of the volunteers interviewed expressed a desire to learn something from their time spent at the agency. DAP, having one of the most extensive volunteer training programs in the area, gave them an opportunity to learn a great deal about domestic violence, and how volunteers can make a difference to victims of domestic abuse. When asked about the things they had learned regarding domestic violence since becoming a hotline volunteer, many expressed how they had no idea that it was so prevalent. One common theme that emerged was how volunteering at DAP corrected some of their misconceptions regarding domestic violence. One volunteer experienced the revelations shared by many by stating: “I was like everyone else who asked themselves, why don’t they just leave? I don’t get it! I come from a very stable environment, so I thought it must

Domestic Violence 13 be all about low self-esteem, but I now know that it can be a lot of different things. I now know what domestic abuse is all about, and how complex it is, how it surpasses all socio-economic boundaries, and that it never has anything to do with the victim, but has everything to do with the abuser and their issues” Generally, there was very little that volunteers would say that they did not like about volunteering on the hotline. Of those that mentioned anything at all, common answers tended to focus on the lack of financial resources to meet the needs of victims looking for help. According to one volunteer, “it’s really hard to turn people away from the shelter. If it were up to me I’d just tell everybody to come in, even though I know that it’s not feasible or realistic.” Another volunteer stated that “this is the first time I’ve been in a non-profit situation, and seeing the situation where there is so much need, but just no enough money/resources to meet all the needs for people can be very frustrating at times.” Regarding the sometimes traumatic nature of the calls they received, volunteers were asked how they coped with those situations, and whether or not they found themselves thinking about calls after they left the agency. Most of the volunteers stated that they had learned to keep what happens on the hotline in the hotline room, and did not take it home with them. Doing so would be too stressful. Only the volunteer who had the least amount of experience expressed that she sometimes worried about callers outside of her hotline hours. Common themes that emerged about how they coped with stressful calls revolved around the amount of support they felt within the agency.

Domestic Violence 14 In the words of one volunteer, “What I find helpful after stressful calls is to discuss it with others in the office, or around the agency with other volunteers or counselors, to bounce it off them, see how they’ve dealt with similar situations, and that kind of diffuses it.” Sharing stressful experiences with those around them was the most common answer to how volunteers coped with stressful calls. Although it was expressed that it was often difficult to not think about certain situations after leaving the hotline room, those with experience recognized that worrying about things one has no power over didn’t do anyone any good. When asked what could be done by the agency to make their volunteer experiences more comfortable and/or enjoyable, most expressed that they felt the agency took great care of them. The one response that kept being repeated was the wish for the victim/abuser index card files to become computerized, so that they could easily do conflict checks by typing in someone’s name instead of riffling through heavy, overpacked file drawers. It was also discovered that many volunteers had been asked to serve in other volunteer positions throughout the agency in the past, but in recent years have not been asked to do so. Some of the volunteers wondered why this was so, and expressed a desire to be offered the chance to contribute in other ways from time to time. Finally, each volunteer was asked whether or not they would recommend volunteering in DAP’s hotline room to others. The volunteers unanimously stated “YES”. The many intrinsic rewards were highlighted, as well as the reality that being a hotline volunteer makes of positive difference in our society. However, many of the volunteers expressed that the position was not for everyone. A common statement was that people wanting to

Domestic Violence 15 volunteer for the hotline should be prepared to deal with some pretty heavy subject matter, and needed to take care of themselves.

Discussion Volunteers are a vital resource in meeting the needs of many clients of social service agencies throughout the world (Haddad, 2006). In the United States, it has been estimated that between 28% and 44% of people volunteer as some point in their lives (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005), and of those, around 500,000 give their time to women’s associations (Haddad, 2006). Of primary importance to agencies that rely on volunteers for services they provide, is to avoid high rates of volunteer turnover. This can be done through proper education and psychological debriefing (Kinzel & Nanson, 2000). In this qualitative exploratory case study on hotline volunteers at the Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County (DAP), much has been learned. It has been found that DAP, as an agency, does a phenomenal job in educating and providing social support for their hotline volunteers. Not only does DAP promote an atmosphere where psychological debriefing is encouraged, staff within DAP are readily available to address the concerns and needs of their volunteers. As a result, volunteers within DAP’s hotline room feel adequately supported and appreciated, which is the likely reason that so many of DAP’s hotline volunteers have been part of the agency for years. However, as with anything, there is always room for improvement. Based on the data gleaned from interviews and observations, a few things could be done to make the experiences of hotline volunteers even more satisfying and comfortable. One suggestion is to provide options for hotline volunteers to utilize their unique skill sets in different

Domestic Violence 16 ways. This could easily be accomplished by posting a “volunteer opportunity” sign-up sheet within the hotline room, so that if hotline volunteers wanted to provide other kinds of services, they could. Another possible improvement would be to transfer the information in the victim/abuser card files, to the computer already located within the hotline room. If the files became computerized, the job of doing conflict checks would become significantly easier and more efficient. Utilizing the hotline computer in such a way could be as simple as creating a computer-to-computer network link, or even accomplished by regularly updating client lists through CD-ROM or Flash Drive information transfers. It is my hope that the information presented in this case study will aid volunteer coordinators in recruiting and retaining volunteers. During the 45-hour volunteer training that DAP provides, much emphasis is given to the fact that volunteers need to take care of themselves to avoid burnout, however not much is mentioned about early warning signs. Perhaps education about “compassion fatigue” could assist volunteers in recognizing the early stages of burnout, thereby offering an opportunity to address the issue before it leads to resignation. The experiences of current volunteers could also be used to give potential volunteers a feel for the atmosphere within the agency, as well as providing further information to assist others in preparing for the volunteer positions they hope to obtain. In conclusion, DAP could very well be used as an exemplar to other social service agencies regarding the proper treatment of volunteers. Volunteers within DAP are happy to be there, feel supported by the full time staff, and enjoy the company of their fellow volunteers. By being provided adequate social supports, DAP hotline volunteers are able

Domestic Violence 17 to psychologically debrief during their volunteer shifts. Doing so aids in reducing the probability that they will be negatively affected by the depictions of abuse they hear, thereby allowing them to focus on the internal rewards of helping those in need.

References

Domestic Violence 18 American Institute on Domestic Violence. (2007). Domestic violence in the workplace statistics, 2001. Retrieved October 28, 2007 from http://www.aidvusa.com/Statistics.htm Bureau of labor Statistics. (2005). Volunteering in the United States, 2005. Retrieved October 26, 2007 from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm/ Brunero, J. S. (2002). Evolution, altruism and “internal reward” explanations. The Philosophical Forum, 23(4), 413-424. Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County (2007). Who we are, 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2007 from http://www.dapdc.org/mission.htm Faver, C. A. (2001). Rights, responsibility, and relationships: Motivations for women’s social activism. Affilia, 16(3), 314-336. Fletcher, T. D., & Major, D. A. (2004). Medical students’ motivations to volunteer: An experimentation of the nature of gender differences. Sex Roles, 51(1/2), 109-114. Haddad, M. A. (2006). Civic responsibility and patterns of voluntary participation around the world. Comparative Political Studies, 39, 1220-1242. Hatashita, H., Hirao, K., Brykczynski, K. A., & Anderson, E. T. (2006). Grassroots efforts of Japanese women to promote services for abused women. Nursing and Health Sciences, 8, 169-171. Kinzel, A., & Nanson, J. (2000). Education and debriefing: Strategies for preventing crises in crisis-line volunteers. Crisis, 21(3), 126-134. Matsuba, M. K., Hart, D., & Atkins, R. (2007). Psychological and social-structural influences on commitment to volunteering. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 889-907.

Domestic Violence 19 Okun, M. A., & Schultz, A. (2003). Age and motives for volunteering: Testing hypotheses derived from socioemotional selectivity theory. Psychology and Aging, 18(2), 231-239.

Domestic Violence 20 Appendix A Interview Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

How long have you been a volunteer at the Domestic Abuse Project (DAP)? What volunteer services do you provide? Have you volunteered anywhere before coming to DAP? If so: Where, how long, and what did you do? Do other people you know, such as family members, partners, friends, etc. spend their time as volunteers? If so, what do they do? What do you like most about your time spent volunteering at DAP? What do you like least about your time spent volunteering at DAP? What would you say are some of your primary motivations for being a volunteer at DAP? How do you cope with the often stressful situations that are presented to you while in your role as a volunteer? In other words, how do you take care of yourself after dealing with high-stress scenarios conveyed by clients? What are some of the things you have learned surrounding the issues of domestic violence while serving as a volunteer? Would you recommend volunteering at a domestic abuse center to others, and why? Is there anything at all that you would like to see change, in order to make your volunteer experience more rewarding and/or comfortable?