Volunteers needed as Peer listener (Confidential Contact Person for students)

Studying and being a student can be a challenge and can cause worries and uncertainty. You can be faced with struggles or unpleasant interactions. Sharing experiences with someone who is your own age can feel as a safe and comfortable step to take. That is why the department of CES-SACC and the Student Union jointly introduce the confidential Contact Person (CCP) for students. Or to put it simple: a peer listener.

What do you do?

As a peer listener, you offer support to your fellow-students. Your main task is to be a person to whom students can easily turn, and, by fulfilling that role, to lower the threshold for students to talk to professionals in the support structure at UT. You will be a sympathetic ear to fellow students who encounter struggles when studying or participating in on/off campus activities. Your goal is to help them figure out which can be the best next steps and whom to contact if necessary. The position of a peer listener for students is a voluntary position. The team of peer listeners for students is managed by the Confidential Advisers for Students.

What do we offer?

• The opportunity to support fellow students and develop your professional skill set.

• Inspirational training by the Confidential Advisers for Students.

• Peer support, guidance, and supervision.

• An edubadge for CCPs for students through the Student Union, to which you can refer in your résumé.

What do we ask from you?

• You are an enrolled UT student

• You are available for 1.5 to 2 years, for at least 1 hour per week

• You care about the well-being of your fellow students

• You are honest and trustworthy

• You are able to respect both the student’s and your own personal limits and boundaries

• You are open-minded

• You are willing to help on occasional basis with activities to stimulate the visibility of the confidential contact person

• Preferably, you have followed the Look-after-your-Friend training, Bystander Intervention Training, or a similar training.

Furthermore, we are at this moment discussing a pilot regarding a living room, in which a confidential contact person will be present at certain times, to create a safe space where students can go to if they need a listening ear. We hope that you also on occasional basis would want to participate with this. The amount of time a confidential contact person needs is at this moment still limited. It is primarily the training. The amount of time depends mainly how often a student will contact you in your role as CCP.

Application interviews will take place in October. The required peer listener training will take place on October 14th (13.30-17.00) and October 21st (13.30-17.00).

Please send a short motivation and your résumé to Marjolein Drent (marjolein.drent@utwente.nl, Confidential Adviser for Students). Would you like to get more information? Please contact Marjolein (marjolein.drent@utwente.nl or Frido Oei (f.b.l.j.oei@utwente.nl)