Volunteer Support
What you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Goethe
One of the primary goals of Helping Hands - Healing Hearts is to foster volunteerism that will support pediatric palliative and hospice care in our region. This kind of comprehensive, multi-disciplinary care is labor intensive and expensive to provide, making the volunteer component extremely important and valuable.
Many of the hospitals, hospices, bereavement services and other agencies we list have outstanding volunteer services. Call the organization whose work and location appeal to you and ask to speak to the Volunteer Coordinator. Click on Supportive Resources and/or Bereavement Resources for these listings. You will find there are opportunities to do the volunteering that best suits your skills, interest and availability - from direct patient and family care, to office work, fundraising, counseling, etc. Some volunteer work will require extensive training, while other work may require a bare minimum. Please click on Educational Events for listings of some of the training scheduled for the future.
Some parents or siblings who have benefited from the services they received while a child was seriously ill, feel moved to return the kindness, when the time is right. Others feel uncomfortable doing this and need to find a different means of healing. Dr. Alan D. Wolfelt's books for parents, grandparents, teenagers and siblings are full of suggestions for how to cope with pain and grief. Visit www.centerforloss.com.
Trying new things is important.
Matthew J. T. Stepanek - "Mattie"