Volunteer Opportunities

Camp Forget-Me-Not August 1, 2, and 3, 2008

RETURNING Camp Volunteer Application click here

NEW Camp Volunteer Application click here

For any questions concerning volunteering at the Wendt Center or for Camp Forget-Me-Not,
Please call Sarah Berry at 202-204-5009 or email sberry@wendtcenter.org

Be a "Buddy" to a camper
Assist group facilitators as a "Rooter"
Help with pre-camp preparations

Grief Groups

Assist clinicians with child, teen and adult groups at main and satellite offices
Lead groups if you have a mental health degree

Companion

Support an individual or family who is grieving, at a place and time convenient to the volunteer and client

Program Support

Provide administrative assistance in the office, including phones, mailings, etc.
Lend professional artistic skills, such as music, art, playback theater, dance
Help with art projects, graphic design, visual displays
Assist with fundraising efforts, including the Annual Benefit

Work, school and family pressures can seem unbearable to people facing illness, loss and death. Many in our community do not have family members nearby to turn to for support and may feel isolated and alone. They may be afraid to depend too heavily on friends and neighbors who are grappling with their own grief or feel uncomfortable with discussing the difficult issues of illness and death. The end result is that many people face their grief with little support or understanding.

Wendt Center volunteers can provide confidential support, free of charge, to children, adolescents, adults, families, friends and caregivers who are impacted by life-threatening illness or death. Our volunteers are trained by the Wendt Center professional mental health staff. They can listen, help, play and emotionally support those who are ill or grieving. They are not in the business of giving advice, solutions or cures, but rather of sharing the pain and experience of loss and grief and of celebrating life in the midst of illness and death. Our volunteers are of all ages and from diverse backgrounds and are respectful of cultural and spiritual orientations. Volunteers may meet clients at a time and place of mutual convenience. Some examples of services our volunteers are providing:

Driving a woman to the cemetery to visit her child’s grave
Caring for and playing with young children at the Wendt Center for 50 minutes, while a parent attends to his/her grief therapy
Helping terminally ill clients prepare a will and attend to other personal affairs
Mentoring and providing academic support (help with homework) to individual child and teen clients

Some of our volunteers assist with our adult and child grief groups. Special training, given by Wendt Center clinical staff members, is required before a volunteer can participate in a group.

Volunteers also play an important role in the operations of the Wendt Center by working in the office to help with our many mailings or with the hard work of preparing for our children’s weekend grief camp, Camp Forget-Me-Not.

For more information or a Volunteer Application please contact
Sarah Berry, Volunteer Coordinator at sberry@wendtcenter.org
202-624-0010 Ext. 107