Meet Jiao, one of our ConnecTeen volunteers! Jiao began volunteering during the pandemic, seeking a meaningful way to use her free time and make an impact on her community.  

We sat down with Jiao and asked her a couple questions about her experience on a youth crisis line.  

(Answers were edited for clarity and length).

Q: What made you want to volunteer with ConnecTeen? 

I ultimately just wanted to do something in my free time that was really high impact. I started during COVID when I didn’t have much to do. And after reading about how the average call lasts 15 minutes, but you can make such a big difference in some for someone’s day in that amount of time, I was like, there’s really no better use of my time right now. So that’s why I decided to apply. 

Q: Are there any past experiences you’ve had that made you feel like you’d be a good fit for volunteering? 

I was always one of those people that all my friends came to when they had something on their mind that they wanted to talk about. And I found that during COVID, a lot of people would kind of lose the ability to go to the peers that they used to go to before because of social distancing. So, I thought that by doing this volunteer position, I would be able to fill that role a little bit and help more people talk to someone their age when they had something on their mind. 

Q: Did you have any misconceptions about volunteering on a crisis line? 

When I first started volunteering, I realized I had a lot of misconceptions about how to best support people. For example, something I used to do is just throw advice at you whenever you would ask me to talk to you about something on your mind. Something that was really helpful during the training is not only did they correct the misconceptions, they also explained why those misconceptions were a thing and why it would make helping someone through crisis less effective. Understanding that made it easier to remember not to make those same mistakes when I was actually on the line. 

Q: What do you do when you’re feeling stressed?

 

I can usually tell when I’m stressed about things when I can’t stop thinking about it, and even when I’ve moved on to doing other tasks that are completely unrelated, I still continuously think about that, and I just zone off of whatever I’m currently doing.  

When I’m stressed, I try my best to take my mind off things. A lot of the time I’ll try to talk with friends about something entirely unrelated to what I’m stressed about, or I’ll listen to music. 

Q: Why do you think it can be hard for someone to reach out for help? 

I think it’s really difficult for people to reach out because I think people are scared of being judged and having other people feel like their situation isn’t “bad enough.” But what matters most is how the situation makes them feel. If it’s feeling overwhelming or distressing, it’s bad enough. I also think that talking to a stranger can be a little bit daunting sometimes. 

But talking to strangers definitely has its benefits. I love talking to someone that I won’t have to look in the eye tomorrow. That really makes me feel more comfortable and able to be open and actually tell them everything that’s on my mind. 

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Thanks so much for chatting with us Jiao and for volunteering with ConnecTeen! 

Want to make a difference? Learn more about volunteering with ConnecTeen or Distress Centre.