Peggy Revell
Family and Children’s Services is hoping local youths will give them a helping hand and make a difference in the lives of children across the district by participating in their volunteer program.
“There’s a lot of kids in the high school that are really good, helpful kids,” said FACS volunteer co-ordinator Amanda Jourdain. “And mentoring to the younger kids just helps with the next generation, they’ll all benefit from it.”
The volunteer program at FACS is meant to support existing programs and staff, Jourdain explained, but unfortunately they’ve often been short on volunteers.
“Things have changed, people are busy, everybody’s busy,” she conceded. “For most families, both parents are working and then running to 10,000 activities after school with their kids.”
Since volunteers of all ages are still a really important part of the volunteer program, Jourdain said bringing in more youth volunteers can help alleviate this problem.
“The students have to have 40 community involvement hours, so the idea is to get them involved with the volunteer program to be tutors, mentors, child-care providers, and then possibly stay involved once they establish a relationship,” she remarked.
“That’s the goal.”
While the 40 hours of community service is something students have to complete, FFHS vice-principal Al McManaman noted opportunities like this build partnerships between the school and different agencies, and help them support each other.
“Students in Ontario have to do their 40 hours of community service, but in terms of what the service with FACS provides, it’s an excellent fit for students who might think of going into social services work down the line or into education,” he noted.
“I think that’s a really good focus,” he added. “It gives the students a lot of good insight into what it’s like to mentor a child in terms of being supportive and helpful, that kind of avenue for them, and I think it builds in them some confidence and skills, as well.”
One of the main traits volunteers need to have is being comfortable with kids, Jourdain said.
“But in saying that, there’s all different types of personalities,” she explained. “So my job is going to be to match the student with the child, so that their personalities [are] good together.
“Mainly they need to be good with kids. They need to be flexible, open-minded, and have something to offer,” she stressed.
“And everybody has something to offer.”
The younger children involved in the program are referred to Jourdain from FACS workers, such as those in child development or in child protection, she explained.
“They will say something like, ‘I would like a volunteer to work with an eight-year-old boy that likes to play baseball, or a five-year-old girl that’s learning how to read.’
“They’ll give me a little bit of information about what they want and what they’re looking for, and then I’ll look through the applications and see who might fit it, and also matching up who has time on certain days and when we can do it, things like that.
“There’s all different sorts of areas where kids need help,” Jourdain stressed, adding this could be something as simple as tutoring a child in a specific area they may be having problems with at school, or just some extra one-on-one reading with them.
“Sometimes it’s just extra attention,” she said. “The more you read with a child, the faster they learn to read.
“[Youth] can do arts and crafts with the kids, they could play puzzles, they could go to the park. There’s lots of things.”
Jourdain added FACS also has a newly-renovated family room, filled with activities like a Nintendo Wii, crafts, and tons of toys, as a place to hold activities.
Volunteering even could be as simple as watching children during FACS programs for parents.
“Sometimes there’s parenting groups that are going on and we need help watching the children so the parents can participate in the groups,” Jourdain explained. “So they would be child care, baby-sitting, and playing with kids.
“I also hope to have enough students involved this year by August so that they can be a big part of running the camp that we have at Sunny Cove every year,” she added.
Besides being an “easy” way for high school students to complete their community involvement hours, Jourdain said they can benefit in other ways since any type of volunteering, especially with a FACS agency, looks good on a college résumé.
“Some of the students may only get 40 hours, but they may want to continue because they recognize the need in our community for being good volunteers, and that’s one of the great things that can happen,” McManaman enthused.
“Every student here has special skills,” he stressed. “Overall, they’re bringing in with them their leadership skills . . . whether or not it’s in music or sports or dance, whatever it is, they can show off some of their talents and skills that they’ve picked up over the years . . . communication skills, teaching respect skills, listening skills.
“Everything that we want to teach in terms of students being good citizens for our community and giving back to it.”
And being role models who give younger children goals is one of the many benefits of the program, Jourdain remarked.
“For example, if I had a hockey player student come, maybe he’d want to involve the child he’s working with and teach him how to skate, give him a goal,” she said, noting those students who are involved with sports and activities at school are the ones who do really well.
“So if we can get the next group of kids involved in sports and have goals like these older kids that are successfully graduating, it will just help.
“I just think it’s a win-win situation,” Jourdain continued, also noting FACS hopes students will remain involved with the program even after they’ve completed their community hours needed to graduate from high school.
“The high school kids are going to get a lot of experience, they’re going to learn how gratifying it is to give of yourself and help somebody else. And, in turn, once the kids who are going through this program grow up, and go to the high school, it’s just going to be a circle effect and it’s going to benefit the entire community eventually.
“So that’s our hope,”
Those interested in volunteering can contact Jourdain at 274-7787.
