A Volunteer Story - Learn how Janice found her place as a volunteer and how she helps the children living in our shelter feel loved and stay connected to their happiest childhood memories.
I retired in December of 2015 after working at ASU for 25 years. I had always wanted to volunteer in the community but could never seem to fit it into my busy schedule. Once I retired, I started looking for volunteer opportunities and learned about Child Crisis Arizona. My dream of volunteering always involved foster care or adoptions. My twin brother and I were put up for adoption at birth and at 6 months of age were adopted by the same loving family and grew up together. We were so fortunate to have such a wonderful mother and father to raise us and provide the foundation that makes us who we are today. I love sharing my experiences and hope I can make a difference in some kids’ lives.
After taking the “Day in Our Life” tour at Child Crisis, I knew that was for me. However, attending the orientation session made me realize I might not be ready to provide direct care of the kids. I hadn’t been around young children since raising my own kids, who are now in their 30s. When I expressed my uneasiness to initially work directly with the kiddos the volunteer coordinator mentioned something different. Various groups from the community come to Child Crisis Arizona to do planned activities with the kids, most of which are on Saturday afternoons. They wanted someone to greet the groups, get them signed in with name badges, review the rules regarding the kids and shelter, and escort them to the appropriate house so they could begin their planned activities. After introducing them to the staff, I would take photos of the kids doing their activities so those could be included in the child’s Lifebook which they receive when leaving the shelter. This seemed like a perfect way for me to get started. In July 2016, I started doing that for a couple of hours each week and, when I learned they needed help scrapbooking these photos, I started doing that too. It had been years since I had done any scrapbooking but I always loved doing it, so taking this on was a good fit for me. Enjoying my time at Child Crisis Arizona, I continued to increase my volunteer hours each week and now volunteer three days a week for 15 or more hours each week.
My time here at Child Crisis Arizona is very rewarding! My volunteering has provided me opportunities to get to know the kids and my comfort level being around them has increased greatly. When I walk into a house I’m often greeted with excitement from someone asking “Do we have a group coming today?”. I love seeing smiles on the kiddos faces and being asked for a hug or to read them a book. I don’t have any photos from my life before being adopted so I hope that when they look at these photos it will bring back good memories of their time here at Child Crisis Arizona.
Are you interested in volunteering with Child Crisis Arizona? Check out our volunteer page to see what kinds of volunteer opportunities we offer for groups/individuals and be sure to attend our next Volunteer Orientation if you're able to!
Janice started working with Child Crisis Arizona just a few hours a week in July of 2016, but has steadily increased her volunteer hours over the last year to almost fifteen hours a week! Although she does many things at Child Crisis Arizona these days Janice spends much of her time making Lifebooks, special scrapbooks made specifically for children in out-of-home care to help them retain their connections to important people, memories and life events that occurred prior to their placement with their forever family.
