From sarena@u.washington.edu Wed Mar 15 12:11:13 2000 Received: from jason04.u.washington.edu (root@jason04.u.washington.edu [140.142.78.5]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id MAA39192; Wed, 15 Mar 2000 12:11:12 -0800 Received: from homer29.u.washington.edu (sarena@homer29.u.washington.edu [140.142.76.14]) by jason04.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW00.01) with ESMTP id MAA19970; Wed, 15 Mar 2000 12:11:11 -0800 Received: from localhost (sarena@localhost) by homer29.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id MAA86600; Wed, 15 Mar 2000 12:11:09 -0800 Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 12:11:09 -0800 (PST) From: Sarena Seifer To: ccp@u.washington.edu, hspice@u.washington.edu Subject: Volunteer Opportunities Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 15:13:30 -0800 (PST) From: Jennifer M. Mas Greetings! Interested in working with homeless young adults, ages 18 - 25? University Temple United Methodist Church (UMC) is looking for people to help with their Thursday night shelter. The shelter, located in the U-District, is the ONLY shelter in King County that serves this age group. SHELTER The shelter sleeps 20 and provides a safe, warm atmosphere for young adults to sleep one night a week. Dinner and breakfast are served and a movie is provided Thursday night. Volunteers mingle with guests, assist with the intake process and ensure that the environment remains safe. LOGISTICS Volunteers arrive at 8:15 pm and leave the following morning at 8 am. Don't Worry, you don't have to stay awake the entire time! Volunteers sleep in shifts and work together to with the coordinator if incidents occur. There are no less than 6 volunteers at any given time, two of which are male. When there aren't enough volunteers, the shelter does NOT open. NEED UMC is looking for volunteers. More specifically, UMC is looking for students with previous experience in social services. (Social Work students get ready!) UMC is loosing funding for their current social worker. As a result, they are hoping to find individuals with a background in social work OR individuals that are well versed with Seattle's resources for homeless folks. Don't fit this category? Don't let this deter you. They accept ALL volunteers. FACTS The facts are that homeless youth and adults through out the US have a history of abuse in their previous homes, drug addiction, mental health problems and learning disabilities. The facts are that some of the young adults staying at the shelter may be using drugs of some sort or have a mental illness, too. The coordinator and director of the program, who are there at all times, are trained to work with these issues. I had the opportunity to go last Thursday to see if I felt comfortable opening it up to SPARX students - or anyone else interested (forward the email). The answer is yes, Yes, and YES! It is a warm environment with a committed, competent staff of volunteers who promote a safe environment for both guests and volunteers. COMMITMENT Minimal! The vision is one Thursday per month with a six month commitment (summers can be negotiated if you are going home). SPARX Certificate enrollees with earn 4 points towards their certificate for participating. INTERESTED YET APPREHENSIVE Check it out first! No need to commit to anything before you feel comfortable. We can set up an observation time for you to drop in to the shelter and see what happens on a typical evening. If you are interested in finding out more about this fantastic volunteer opportunity, contact me at jmas@u.washington.edu and we will go from there. THANKS! Jennifer *************************************************************************** Jennifer Mas SPARX Program Director/Coordinator WWAMI AHEC Program Coordinator Box 355330 University of Washington, Health Sciences, Annex 4, Room 145 Seattle, WA 98195-5330 206.543.6020 phone 206.616.4990 fax www.dom.washington.edu/sparx SPARX (Student Providers Aspiring to Rural and underserved eXperiences) is an interdisciplinary program of the schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health & Community Medicine and Social Work. **************************************************************************** .