Disaster Child Care provides training workshops.

This year, Disaster Child Care has been offering a series of Level I Training Workshops for child care volunteers, and has named a new training coordinator. The program is a ministry of the Church of the Brethren General Board.

Robert (Bob) Roach of Phenix, Va., will work on a volunteer basis with Disaster Child Care coordinator Helen Stonesifer to coordinate the Level I Training Workshops. He will work with sponsoring organizations to establish dates and locations, and to assign trainers. Congregations interested in sponsoring a training may contact him at 434-542-5565 or phenixva@hotmail.com. “Our goal continues to be to schedule training events in the Gulf Coast states, as well as in other states where there are very few trained volunteers or none at all,” Stonesifer said.

Level I Training Workshops have been held in Atlanta, Ga., on Feb. 16-17, with 19 participants; in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 23-24, with 18 in attendance; at Dallas Center (Iowa) Church of the Brethren on March 9-10 with 19 participants; at Agape Church of the Brethren in Fort Wayne, Ind., on March 16-17 with 11 people registered; and at the Martin Luther King Center in Natchitoches, La., on March 23-24.

An upcoming training on April 20-21 will be at Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren in Littleton, Colo.; contact Judy Gump at 970-352-9091 or Maxine Meunier at 303-973-4727.

Several experienced child care volunteers are receiving American Red Cross (ARC) Critical Response Team Training this week. Eight volunteers are attending the training in Las Vegas, Nev., on March 25-30, including a special Disaster Child Care orientation on March 26. The training will help volunteers understand the roles and responsibilities of a Critical Response Team member and how Disaster Child Care fits into the structure of the ARC Critical Response Team.

In other work, Disaster Child Care has represented the Church of the Brethren in conversations with the American Red Cross and Save the Children, in the process of establishing a “Statement of Understanding” to ensure the wellbeing of children in emergency evacuation shelters for people who have been affected by conflict and disasters. “One of the ways to achieve this is to set up safe play spaces--designed for children ages 4 to 10 to play and participate in recreational activities with other children for several hours each day,” Stonesifer said. “Working together, these agencies plan to provide a ‘Safe Space Kit’ and to secure and train volunteers to work in the areas,” she said.

Source: 3/28/2007 Newsline