Before life gets away from me again, and Dan with the laptop, I thought I'd better do a little catching up while I can. He's napping and I have the laptop at my sole digression so here goes:
(WARNING: This is very wordy because I L.O.V.E. my volunteer work.)
I started volunteering at
Safe Harbor Crisis Nursery about a year ago.
I was looking for something to do with my time when we first moved up here and found a service newsletter. Safe Harbor was asking for baby rockers and I knew I could do that without any problem. So I contacted them to see about helping out. Well, they weren't needing baby rockers at that time and Marta gave me some other ideas. I just wanted to be involved and was willing to help out multiple days a week. As we were trying to decide on the "perfect" fit for me Marta mentioned helping with the after school "Taming the Dragons" class. I said that I for sure wanted to help with the children. Thus began my regular weekly love affair with the children who come to Safe Harbor.
Here's a bit about what I help do at Safe Harbor. The children in our class have all experienced some type of trauma in their lives. The trauma
(or dragons as we call it) varies from one child to the next. One might be dealing with a parent who has or is addicted to drugs or alcohol. Another may have been severely abused
(usually by a family member or boy/girlfriend of a family member). Others may have parents who are going through a nasty divorce and the children are showing signs of trauma or crisis. Still others might be dealing the worries and concerns of a terminally ill sibling or parent. Many of our children are in some type of foster care situation, through the state or living with a family member other than a parent. The children who seek refuge at Safe Harbor are referred by parents, guardians, the courts, teachers, or even church leaders, neighbors, or friends. They are having to face grown-up emotions that grown-ups usually don't know how to handle.
When the come to our class we teach them how to slay their dragons. Everything we do in class has a purpose. We take a few minutes each week to teach calming skills and body triggers to recognize when a calming skill is needed. We play a cooperative game with them
(most traumatized & abused children have to be in control so they don't do well in team settings).
We do an art project with them since art is soothing and calming to most children.
We will look at "I Spy" books with them, play games one-on-one, ask about their day, imagine, laugh, and mostly love them. We get to give lots of hugs, high-fives, cuddles, etc. that many times they are lacking in their relationships with other adults in their lives. It is the highlight of my week and one of the best things I've ever stumbled on.
Safe Harbor also teaches parenting classes to the parents of these children. Most of the parents have children who are not living with them for various reasons. A few have just had their children returned to them or are trying to reinstate visitation with their children. The parenting classes teach parents who didn't come from healthy family environments how to create healthy environments for their children. What we teach the parents aren't new ideas to most people because most people were exposed to healthy parenting styles.
The bottom line of what we do is try to break cycles. Break cycles with the parents to stop the trauma. And break cycles with the children so they know how to deal with their challenges and not continue the trauma onto another generation.
In February I was hired to be the volunteer coordinator for Safe Harbor. I recruit and retain volunteers for our various activities. I came on just in time to help plan for the annual Secondhand Rose Tea and Luncheon. This is our second biggest fundraiser each year. Each table has a hostess who decorates the table however she wishes and provides the dishes, centerpieces, tea, tea sets, tea pots, etc. The seats at each table are sold to friends and community members who wish to get involved. There is also a silent auction and treasure tables. It was a long day but a good day.
Here are some pictures to give you an idea of the creativity displayed at this event:
They also do a fashion show with clothing all purchased from Safe Harbor's Thrift Store. I learned that since the store began in about 2001 they have donated over $400,000 directly to Safe Harbor! It is a 100% voluntarily run store that accepts donations of almost everything except electronics. All the profits return directly to Safe Harbor. When we received carloads of items we sort through them to decide which we can use specifically at the nursery and everything else is sent to to store and it still benefits us, just indirectly.
As if that wasn't enough there were also items donated for a silent auction as well as a Treasure Table, items that could be purchased immediately without any bidding.
I think there was more I wanted to share but since it is almost 2 weeks since I started this post I'm going to end it here and add more later.
