Please call 832-630-2859 for information on all volunteer opportunities and needs.
Would you be interested in spending a few hours, once a week, rocking, holding and cuddling babies? Throughout the 90-day intensive rehab program, the moms are required to spend 30 hours in class/group. We all know the distraction a child creates. We need volunteers willing to come in and give them a hand. Our Paschall location has the most children, but there are some newborns at the 2005 Jacquelyn location as well.
Many of the children of our clients experience academic difficulties. Would you be interested in assisting a client’s child with their homework or helping them to learn their multiplication tables? Your help is needed at our Paschall site to assist these children in the learning process and remove one more concern from an already over-burdened mother. The time spent is very rewarding!
KIT is a program created by Terry Elizondo and her daughter Mary, a law student at South Texas College of Law. Terry, an attorney whose law practice includes Juvenile Law and Family Law, states, “Children separated from their moms by drug rehab or custody suffer strong feelings of abandonment.” This is only made worse when they don’t get mail from their mom. Many times the children say their moms didn’t even send them a birthday card.
Often the parents are unable to contact their children because they don’t have the resources or the knowledge of how to find an address for them, especially if CPS is involved.
The KIT program provides the tools for them to communicate, on no less than a monthly basis; i.e., cards, postage, assistance with addresses and writing. The class is one hour long and at the end of that time a card has been created, and a letter has been written and addressed. Please contact Terry Elizondo if you are an attorney who is interested in volunteering at Santa Maria.
Family nights are special times each week when the families of the Santa Maria Hostel women are invited to come to our facilities and attend group educational sessions with their daughters, wives, etc. Unfortunately, some families are either unwilling or unable to participate, leaving these women with no family support system while they are in treatment.
This program came about as the result of an attorney whose daughter was in the program. As he came each week to support his daughter, he observed the sadness experienced by those who had no family there to support them. Would you be willing to stand in the gap one evening per week and be there for those women throughout their stay at Santa Maria Hostel?
As the women of Santa Maria progress in their pursuit of recovery, they learn just how many everyday skills they have either lost or never had. In order to address this deficit, volunteers may offer special learning sessions designed to teach our clients how to balance their checkbooks, plan nutritous meals, shop prudently, organize important papers and files and how to manage many other aspects of their daily living. Do you have an hour or two a week to share your talents and skills with the women of Santa Maria?
An important component of a woman’s recovery is learning that she is not alone. Our women have found that spirituality groups make such a difference in helping them to accept the need for support from others, to reach out to others, and to establish a relationship with a “Higher Power” of their choosing. If you have experience and knowledge of 12-step recovery and spirituality, our clients could benefit from your experience. Would you be able to assist a group of Santa Maria women in their search for serenity by introducing them to spirituality?
There are so many aspects of providing treatment and the clerical duties associated with this wonderful opportunity are numerous. Your clerical skills would be a great asset to the administrative offices, our program directors and our medical records team at all sites. Please call Moniquica Anderson at 281:657-0898, extension 202, if you have a few hours a week to offer.