Chinese Emotional Support Hotline Volunteer – Super Stars of the Month June

Chinese Emotional Hotline selected two volunteer super stars for the month of June, a hotline listener and a hotline supervisor.

Jiao Yang is a hotline listener, her English name is Truly. Jiao Yang has been working as a volunteer at the Ecssen Career  School’s Chinese Emotional Support Hotline for more than a year. She is a new immigrant. She has been engaged in education and teaching in China for 15 years before coming to Canada, so she likes this volunteer work that can help others through teamwork, and hopes to influence more people around her to support and participate this job.

Jiao Yang feels that the Chinese community is generally positive and optimistic, but because of cultural differences, not everyone is willing to share their worries. The hotline provides a support for the mental health of the Chinese community, so that when everyone encounters difficulties, there is a place to talk and get help.

Currently, it seems that there are still a small number of people seeking spiritual assistance on the hotline. Most people need physical assistance, but this is a good start. Only when more and more people know the hotline will more people think of the hotline and gradually trust the hotline volunteers. Over the past year, the function of the hotline has been continuously improved, and the work interface has been simplified, refined, and clear. It is only a matter of time that this hotline will become better and better only if everyone works together to help each other and promote each other.

For the volunteers who want to join us, Jiao Yang would like to say: to be a volunteer, you must have a kind of love from the heart, not just to accumulate work experience. Even if it is volunteer work, we should treat it like real work, try to arrive on time , and actively solve problems. Because when we help others, we give them hope for life, the energy they need to change their lives.

Ruth Wei is June’s hotline supervisor star. She has been in Canada for over 20 years. Currently doing medical research. She hopes to help more people, so she volunteers in her spare time. Ruth has been volunteering in the Ecssen Career  School Bread Project since 2017. The hotline was launched in 2020, and she felt obligated to join the team of the hotline. Ruth feels that the mental health of some Chinese in Canada is generally in a sub-health state. The hotline is of great help in improving the mental health of Chinese people. First of all, through the hotline, everyone pays more attention to mental health. The customers  of the Chinese Emotional Support Hotline are those with sub-healthy.

Ruth felt that the original intention of the hotline was to meet the mental health needs of sub-healthy people. But more guests are currently calling for basic needs, such as food pickup and entertainment ticket pickup. Ruth hopes the hotline should do more in areas such as domestic violence, child protection and improving the mental state of people with depression. For hotline volunteers, we need to recruit positive and stress-resistant people.

The hotline has been established for more than a year and has received thousands of calls. If you need to talk, please call 587-997-5977