SHilde's Blog

Last week I was able to make it to my orientation for my volunteer location. The bus ride is 40 minutes so it is going to be a little harder than I thought to plan this time around my schedule. I am also kind of nervous because this place is not in the best neighborhood. I only have to walk about a block though so I don't think it will be that bad. At first the staff on hand had me fill out paperwork. There was another girl there who was volunteering for a maltreatment class. She is a senior and is looking to go into some sort of social work. I didn't quite finish the paperwork before we were introduced, but I was able to finish it later. We were introduced to what St. Anne's was all about and what they required from their volunteers.

We talked about the confidentiality forms and what could be and could not be talked about outside of St. Anne's. What I thought was interesting is that we, as volunteers, are permitted from releasing an personal information about ourselves. In my personal opinion, I find it hard to connect with people if you can not share anything personal about yourself. The shelter also does a background check for any of their incoming volunteers.

End of class...To Be Continuted...

Next they gave us a tour of the home. They showed where the playroom, rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and stuff like that were. We learned about how many people live there at a time, how many people live in each room and other key stuff. Next I figured out what times I will be volunterring which turns out to be three hours a week starting the 24th.

The things that I might be helping out with are sorting out the linen closet (where the bedsheets and donated clothes are kept), helping with dinner preparation and cleanup (I will be volunteering Fridays from 3pm-6pm), and other general chores. I thought I would be helping out with the children more but they actually attend an afterschool program so the tutoring is done there instead.