New Hope for Women, a coastal agency dedicated to helping stop domestic violence and assisting victims of the crimes, is planning a new training session for volunteers to man the hotlines, especially in the critical overnight and weekend hours.

 Stevie Colburn, Volunteer Coordinator for New Hope for Women, said the training session would likely be scheduled for mid-September. “We need volunteers to handle shifts, mostly from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m.,” she said. “Calls are forwarded to them at home, and typically, volunteers do three shifts per month.”

Phone numbers are blocked to the caller, so there is no risk to the volunteer.

“Sometimes people need assistance immediately, and we have staff members on call with a pager for those instances,” Colburn said. “But a lot of the time, people just need to talk, to process what has happened to them, and to consider their options.”

Colburn said there is a constant need for new volunteers. “A lot of our volunteers stay with us for many years,” she said. “Some have been with us for more than 15 years. But as lives change, sometimes our volunteers do too. People move out of state, or have new responsibilities that preclude volunteering.”

Colburn said that the agency couldn't do its work without the volunteer base. “We're in the office 40 hours per week, but a lot of the situations happen after closing time, or on the weekend, or on holidays,” she said. “Sometimes we get calls from concerned friends or family of the victim who are looking for resources to help her.”

Some of the resources include legal needs, support groups, and, in the worst case scenario, help to move a victim to a safe location. New Hope for Women has a series of safe houses, and can move a victim to a shelter out of the area, as there is currently no shelter in the coastal area. One of NHFW's plans over the next year or so is to buy or construct a shelter somewhere in the region of Lincoln, Knox, Sagadahoc, and Waldo counties.

Volunteers can be either men or women. Colburn said the agency has a husband and wife volunteer team who answer the phones.

Colburn pointed out that while domestic violence victims can be anyone, and New Hope for Women does serve men and teens and elders as well, about 85 percent of the people who reach out for help from New Hope are women.

One of the volunteers, Elizabeth, has worked the hotline for three years.  “I’m a parent with several kids, so I spent a lot of time volunteering at a lot of things,” she said. “Too often, I found myself in meetings that were very unproductive.”  She had heard about the training, and said she always felt strongly about women’s issues, so decided to take the New Hope For Women hotline training to learn more about it. “They interview you before you take the course, and you commit to three shifts per month,” she said. “You learn a lot during the training about how to empower people, and the best way to offer education and information. In the end, the person you’re talking to has to do the work to get out of the situation. You can’t drive over to their house and take them home with you, even if you think that’s what they need. Many of the people I’ve talked to have been parents, concerned about their adult children — women and men — in abusive situations. Sometimes they have grandchildren involved, and, I have kids, and that’s difficult.”

Elizabeth sighed. “In those cases, it’s not even the person in the abusive situation, it’s the parent of the adult child in one, and they feel very helpless. A lot of the time, people just want to talk. They need to get their own feelings in order before they’re ready to take the next step, and when they are, New Hope can help.”

Elizabeth said she always tells people to call the office during business hours to discuss ways the agency can help, with legal assistance, transitional housing, emergency shelter, and other help. “We can give them information about domestic abuse, educate them about the basis for abuse, and tell them they’re not alone, and that matters a lot. I’m a person who’s very interested in people and their relationships. They seem to be a microcosm of a lot of social ills — some people have no money, some people are homeless, some people are in abusive situations. But I do feel like I am actually doing something worthwhile, and I plan to continue doing it.”

Elizabeth said her husband and adult children are very supportive of her efforts, and that helps, too.

For information about volunteering at the hotline for New Hope for Women, call (207) 594-2128.