At A & A Cottages we value and depend on volunteers to enhance our programming and make an impact on our youth. The support from the commitment from members of our community truly makes a difference in what we do and we find that every volunteer provides our youth and agency with a new sense of hope.
The following is just a sample of some of the volunteer opportunities:
It is our goal at A & A Cottages to match every youth with a volunteer mentor/tutor. Many of our youth do not have healthy relationships with adults so it is imperative that we provide them with the opportunity to develop and experience positive relationships. Our mentor volunteers provide our youth with invaluable guidance and compassion. The relationships that the youth develop with their mentors allow them to develop positive relationship skills, communication skills, and provides them with opportunities to engage in trusting long term relationships.
Mentors go through a screening process and are expected to meet at least one time a week with their youth.
At A & A Cottages we celebrate life with the girls. We ensure that each of them have a birthday celebration, and we make sure that the holidays are special for them. We also provide them with “normal” teenager activities such as going to movies, exercise, and community events. As you can imagine often coordinating these events for our 18 girls can be quite a task and we treasure the assistance and support of volunteers. This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to spend time with the youth but not dedicate their time on a weekly basis as a mentor.
On a monthly basis we provide our youth with a monthly workshop on a range of topics to enhance their well being. The workshops have included such things as a hike for fitness, a hip hop class, and groups on sexuality and puberty. We find that volunteers often have a special expertise or knowledge in specific areas that benefit the youth. The youth will embrace the time and attention of our volunteers and learn from every experience.
Some of our most treasured volunteers are the ones that provide us with the time of labor. Maintaining upkeep of our two homes with 9 teenagers in each is a daunting task. It is often difficult to maintain the general maintenance of the homes. Volunteers provide us with valuable time while they paint, do landscaping, lay new tile or even remodeling.
A & A Cottages is always looking for volunteers we can call on when we need a hole patched or sink repaired, all things that provide our youth with a safe home.
Being a small agency we rely on our community’s support to help our agency provide quality services. Volunteers are also needed for technical assistance with installing or upgrading our computers, updating the website or maybe designing our newsletters.
By volunteers assisting us in these areas it frees up our staff to focus on what is most important...the youth.