NEWS - Volunteer Training to be held June 28, 2011

Carying Place Volunteers, past, present and future, are invited to a training session on Tuesday, June 28 at 7:00 p.m. at Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian Church.

Former Executive Director Joe Rappl will lead the training, assisted by an “A” Team of former directors/trainers and volunteers who have been involved with the Carying Place for decades.

Rappl was Executive Director from 2000 to 2004, the first full-time director after Carying Place founder, Milt Douglass, put things in place for a successful program. He returned to serve on the board of directors in 2006, and he and his wife returned as Support Partners in 2010.

Emyr Edwards has been leading training programs one Saturday a month for about five years in the Carying Place conference room. He gives potential volunteers an overview of the program, outlines the volunteer responsibilities, and explains some of the mechanics of the program. He is able to give anecdotes of families he has worked with through the years. The Saturday training program developed because his work schedule would no longer allow him to commit on Thursday nights, but he still wanted to make a hands-on contribution. He has also served on the Board of Directors for many years, including two terms as president. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board.

Mercedes Auger, who served as Assistant Director to the founder in the Carying Place’s earliest years and interim executive director twice during transition periods (2005-2007) and January to June of 2011. Through the years she has been support partner, caring sponsor and selection team member and a member of the Carying Place Board of Directors and Advisory Board. She was involved with hiring each of the current staff members.

Carol Regular was one of the first Caring Sponsors in the early 1990s and has continued to volunteer on Thursday nights for many years. She has also coordinated meals for her church and sat on the TCP Board as a liaison from Christian Community In Action, Inc.

New Executive Director Pat Lykins, Program Manager Annie Graham and Program Assistant Sameena Rashid, will also be facilitating parts of the evening.

Regular training sessions will be scheduled at least quarterly in the future. This first session will explore five different areas that will strengthen the experience for volunteers:

• The founder’s vision and information about principles.
• Weekly and monthly budget sheets, presenting the income side and use of the cash register.
• Staff roles, and how they support families with issues, including an overview of professional services available, and how the staff works with the team on the tough love idea for the families.
• The program timeline, the big picture, i.e., how the Thursday evening is supposed to run, how the four-month program is supposed to run, what happens at the six-week review, and how The Carying Place deals with special circumstances.
• How  families are selected, both the staff role and the selection committee role.

The training was set up to help volunteers better understand why we use the tough love approach, and how it’s better for the families, Rappl said. 

“If [the families] can’t do those seven or eight key things that they promised they were going to do, they can’t be successful when they leave,” Rappl said. “It is the volunteer’s job to push them to their limit in a supportive atmosphere, so they actually can be self-sufficient when they leave.”