On Saturday, June 10th, we completed our 80th training session for group facilitators. As our house expansion is nearing completion, we are excited to add more facilitators to grow our evening group nights.
This group of volunteers was eager to learn more about The WARM Place, children’s grief and how they can help the children and families we serve during our group sessions. We had guest speakers discuss various topics to understand the grief process and experience for families, along with tips for working with children and processing open-ended questions to promote discussion in a group setting.
Our 16-hour group facilitator training includes 4 informative days of grief and bereavement education to prepare our volunteers to be discussion leaders for the grief-related activities in each group. The overall theme of training is how to be a companion to a child who is grieving the death of a loved one, based on Dr. Alan Wolfelt’s Companioning philosophy.
On our last day of training, we end with a mock group to give a personal experience of an evening group night before a facilitator joins their first assigned group night. This experience helps to demonstrate what children and volunteers do each group night, so new facilitators get an opportunity to ask questions, participate in sample activities and understand their role in our program.
If you want to be a part of our wonderful and dedicated volunteer team, apply online here or call The WARM Place and speak with our Volunteer and Program Coordinator, Rebecca.
