SANFORD — Twice a month, and sometimes a third time, Debi Sheehan listens to the sort of phone calls that are hard to hear, phone calls that are difficult for the caller to make.

The calls are about domestic violence. Calls asking for help. Calls from people wondering how they can leave an abusive situation, calls about what steps they can take to protect themselves and their kids, calls about finding a place to live that is safe.

Sheehan willingly takes those calls, as she has for the last three years or so. She does it, she said Thursday, because it is something she can do to help.

The folks at Caring Unlimited, York County’s domestic violence resource center, hope others will pitch in to help staff the hotline on a volunteer basis, as Sheehan and 17 others like her do each month. Volunteers take calls at their home, whether they live in Kittery or Old Orchard Beach or Parsonsfield or some locale in between.

Staff prepare volunteers to take the calls, through a 40 hour comprehensive training program that helps new volunteers learn the dynamics of domestic abuse, and how to support victims. Hotline volunteer coordinator Betsy Fleurent said volunteers are given numerous opportunities to practice taking calls and responding to callers before their first shift on the hotline. Volunteers are backed up by Caring Unlimited staff on call.

Even though the agency has about 18 hotline volunteers now, the staff, who take calls during the day, are also obliged to pull evening and nighttime shifts because there just aren’t enough volunteers to help. Fleurent estimates about 18 more volunteers are needed. She said the hotline fields about 300 calls a month.

When its her time to be on call, a 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. shift, Sheehan sets out her information to be ready if the phone does ring. Some shifts, it doesn’t, she said. Sometimes there are several calls, with five the maximum number she’s received in three years of volunteering.

“I like giving back a little,” said Sheehan at Caring Unlimited’s office on Main Street in Sanford Thursday. “I always speak up for the underdog.”

Sheehan decided to get involved after reading about an upcoming training in a newspaper. But a brief, personal experience a few years before also played a role in her decision. Sheehan said she never experienced domestic violence during her marriage, but did once when she was going through a divorce.

“That feeling of helplessness,

I remember how it felt,” she said.

Sheehan said callers ask about shelter information, what a victim’s rights are, and the like. Some folks are referred to the agency’s legal team. Many calls, she said, are from women looking to get out of where they are. Sometimes, she said, there’s an abuser being released from jail, and the victim needs a place to go.

She recommends anyone who thinks they might be able to help to take the training. There are role playing scenarios with staff before that first hotline shift. And there’s the on call back up if a hotline volunteer needs advice.

“I never feel alone,” taking calls, Sheehan said.

She said sometimes people ask her why she wants to listen to other people’s problems. Sheehan puts it this way: “I’m helping,” she said.

To learn more about becoming a hotline advocate, or to apply to join Caring Unlimited as a volunteer, visit: www.caringunlimited.org or call Betsy at 490- 3227, ext. 102. Applications for hotline training will be accepted until 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].