Circle of Care Volunteer Opportunities

Circle of Care offers several types of volunteer opportunities:
Group Facilitators
Practicum Internship Training Program
General Program Support

Group Facilitator

Should you become a volunteer group facilitator with EBAC’s Circle of Care program, the services you will provide to grieving families may be some of the most important work you will ever do.  As a volunteer you will help facilitate support groups for children and teens coping with illness and bereavement in their families.  This volunteer commitment requires you to attend sessions twice a month on Wednesday or Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 9:30.

Prior to beginning in our support groups, prospective volunteer facilitators must complete 24 hours of initial training. This training is both informative and deeply reflective and consists of a wide range of issues including diversity awareness, developmental stages, how children respond to illness and loss, children's play, and how they cultivate coping skills. The training also offers new volunteers an opportunity to explore their own feelings around illness and death.  Ongoing support and supervision is provided throughout the volunteer experience. 

Due to the sensitive and intense nature of this work, we require that you attend all sessions of the training module prior to beginning your work with families. You must be able to make a minimum 14-month commitment to our program in order to provide a consistent presence to our group participants.

Please read Frequently Asked Questions for details about what is required of a volunteer facilitator at Circle of Care. To receive a volunteer application via email, please submit the Volunteer Information Request Form. We suggest that you express your interest early, because volunteer trainings fill up quickly.

Training modules are held two times a year generally in January and August.  The module consists of two weekday sessions from 5:30 – 9:30 p.m., and two Saturday sessions from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.  Our next 2012 training will be August 1, 4, 8 and 11.  Prospective volunteers are required to attend all sessions in full.  To find out about our next or future trainings, please email shoshana@ebac.org

Practicum Internship Training Program

Circle of Care's students and interns provide both individual and family counseling services to clients. Counselors meet with children at our Oakland offices as well as at area schools. The counseling program also provides home-based services to families dealing with illness. Every week interns and students receive both group and individual supervision by licensed therapists. In addition there is a weekly didactic training and intake meeting.

Practicum Internship Flyer

For more information about becoming a Circle of Care trainee or intern, please fill out our Volunteer Practicum Internship Training Program Request Form.

Note: If you are a master’s level trainee or postgraduate clinician/intern interested in a clinical internship with Circle of Care, please consult your school or email Melanie Wartenberg, MFT, at melanie@ebac.org or 510.531.7551 x 107.

General Program Support

• Administrative Volunteer:  If you are skilled at computer work, desktop publishing, organizing, sorting, filing, or mailings, then this opportunity may be right for you.  Some of these tasks need to be performed at our office, but others could be managed at home. 
  
• Walk to Remember Volunteer:  We know that not everyone who has compassion and concern for supporting children through their grief has the time available in their lives to make a 14 month commitment.  Our Annual Walk to Remember could be just the event for you!  Register to walk at www.firstgiving.com/circleofcare , and spread the word about your efforts to your friends and family.  The funds you raise for this event will enable us to continue to provide our vital support group services to children and families, the Walk will get you out at Lake Merritt exercising and remembering our loved ones with a great group and supportive community.
  
• Collecting objects/materials for craft projects: We do a lot of crafting and creating at Circle of Care.  Could you, your family, or your social group collect magazines for us, or toilet paper rolls, or hold a book drive for us?
  
• Multimedia Project Volunteer: Do you have the skills to help us create a mosaic tile wall, make our own digital stories or record some music and create songs, poems and raps?  How about sewing?  We like to make quilts and some simple sewing projects, but often need a few more hands and sewing machines to make them happen.
  
• Outreach Volunteer:  Can you pass out flyers in your neighborhood?  Help us get the word out about Circle of Care to the children who need our services and others who may want to volunteer.  Spend a few hours visiting schools, churches, coffee shops, family friendly stores, medical centers, local colleges and other gathering places distributing our brochures and flyers.  What a help that would be!

To find out if a special volunteer event is coming up, check out our Events, or for more information about volunteering visit Frequently Asked Questions.

If you are interested in sharing your time and skills with Circle of Care in any of these capacities, or would just like to talk to us and get some more information, please complete a Volunteer Information Request Form  and someone from our office will get back to you shortly.

For more information on volunteer opportunities at Circle of Care contact:
Shoshana Phoenixx-Dawn
Support Group Program Coordinator

shoshana@ebac.org
2540 Charleston
Oakland, CA 94602
(510) 531-7551 Ext. 195