The Parent to Parent Service is not currently recruiting volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering with us in the future, please complete our online volunteer enquiry form and we will get in touch when we are recruiting again.
Parent to Parent is a free and confidential telephone support service for parents or carers of an adult or child with autism or Asperger syndrome. The service is provided by volunteer parents who themselves have a child or adult on the autism spectrum.
The volunteers are not 'experts', counsellors or advocates but bring a wealth of experience, knowledge and insight to the scheme. They have all experienced the impact of autism on their own family and are able to genuinely empathise and give support to other parents.
Volunteers provide home-based telephone support for up to two hours per week. Full training, support and expenses are provided.
Volunteers' experiences
I find talking to other parents via the P2P line helps me to put my son's problems into perspective. I find the whole service invaluable and I'm really glad that I took the opportunity to volunteer.
The parents we talk to realise 'Hey, this person is not laughing at us, disbelieving us or telling us that our child needs to be disciplined - they actually can relate and, if nothing else, at least listen'.
One volunteer talks about how varied the type of calls to the line can be:
One day it could be someone who has just returned from the hospital with a diagnosis, another time it could be someone who's had a really bad day - and we all get them - and feels at the end of their tether. What we hear most often from callers is 'It's been so nice to talk to someone who understands'.