Calling All Volunteers!

For any questions concerning volunteering at the Wendt Center or for Camp Forget-Me-Not/Camp Erin DC 2010,
Please call Kecia Hill on 202-204-5025 or email khill@rwendtcenter.org.

Camp Forget-Me-Not/Camp Erin 2010 - June 11 - 13, 2010 - Click here for Camper and Volunteer applications

Be a "Buddy" to a camper
Grief Group Assistants and Respite Buddies
Help with pre-camp preparations as part of our Camp Volunteer Committee, fundraising, administrative tasks and etc.

DC Crisis Response Team - Click here for CRT application

Provide emotional comfort to family members
Provide crisis intervention and grief support
Assist with funeral planning and burial arrangement
Coordinate memorials and candle light vigils
Provide prayer or spiritual support
Check in with the family during first 6-8 weeks to see how they are doing

If you would like to download a General Volunteer Application click here.

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/Camp Erin DC.

For more information on Volunteer opportunities please contact Kecia Hill, at 202.204-5025 or khill@wendtcenter.org

Camp Forget-Me-Not/Camp Erin 2010 - June 11 - 13, 2010 - Click here for Camper and Volunteer applications

Thank you volunteers for all of your hard work and support!