Caring for Volunteers: A Psychosocial Support Toolkit

Staff and volunteers across the globe provide important psychosocial support every day. Not only in response to disasters, armed conflicts and mass shootings, but also in social programmes for slum-dwellers, with victims of violence or accidents, with elderly and isolated people, with people stigmatized because of illness and prejudice and with refugees and asylum-seekers.

During the psychosocial support workshop at the IFRC General Assembly in Geneva in November 2011, a number of National Societies spoke about their experiences and work. And their message was clear: We need to be much better in training and preparing our staff and volunteers for the important work of helping our beneficiaries – and to help ourselves and each other. This toolkit will help you do exactly that.

This resource is available in other languages (French, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic). 

This resource is supported by Caring for Volunteers: Training Manual.

The Psychosocial Centre is hosted and supported by Red Cross in Denmark and supported by The Canadian Red Cross Society, Finnish Red Cross, French Red Cross, Icelandic Red Cross, International Federation Tsunami Unit, Japanese Red Cross Society, Norwegian Red Cross and Swedish Red Cross.

Are you sure you want to delete this "resource"?
This item will be deleted immediately. You cannot undo this action.

Related Resources

Video
15 Dec 2014
This Technical Update Session Webinar was presented by Sabine Rakotomalala, TdH on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Child Protection in Emergencies. For more information, please visit the dedicated resource section or the training and event...
Tags: Video, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support
Guidance material
13 May 2020
This briefing note summarizes key mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) considerations in relation to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The brief was last updated February 2020. Source: Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)
Tags: Guidance material, COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Mental Health and Psychosocial Support
Game
21 May 2024
The GDPC and the American Red Cross noticed a gap in youth preparedness resources when it comes to teens, where preparedness resources are often curated for adult or child audiences, which leaves teens (ages 13-19) under engaged and underprepared. To...
Tags: Game, Capacity Building for Disaster Risk Management, Climate Change Adaptation, Disability Inclusive Disaster Preparedness, Hazard, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, Resilience and Disaster Risk Management, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Urban Preparedness, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Women and Gender in Disaster Management, Youth Disaster Preparedness
Scroll to Top