Spruce Run/Womancare Alliance offers hotline training

By Ginger Hutchins
Volunteer Program Coordinator

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Womancare, the domestic abuse prevention resource center serving Piscataquis County, and Spruce Run, the resource center serving Penobscot County, have recently merged and become one agency —  the Spruce Run/Womancare Alliance. It is our hope that with our combined resources we will be better able to serve both counties. 
    Volunteers remain central to our work. It is still true that we couldn’t provide the services we do without you.

    If you’re willing to give us some of your time and talents, we need you. Would you like to become a more integral part of your community? Do you feel you’d  like to give something back to your community? Do you need to test the field for a future career, to build a resume or to build skills important to a future employer? 
    At either office, Bangor or Dover-Foxcroft, no matter when the phone rings, a helpline worker is there, ready to listen, offer support, and provide information and referrals to other needed services.
    As a hotline worker, one of the things you’ll do is assist in providing our core service; answering calls that come in to our 24-hour helpline.
    Although it’s not easy, answering the helpline is one of the most rewarding jobs we do. You are often the first contact someone affected by abuse has with our organization, and often the first voice someone hears as he or she reaches out for help. 
    Our volunteer direct service workers complete a 40-hour training that prepares them to assist in answering the hotline. The training is designed to prepare folks to talk with those needing services on the phone, to meet with them in person at our office or at one of our outreach locations or at court when accompanying them to a hearing. Advocates support and validate a caller’s feelings, identify and explore options, make referrals, and assist with safety planning.  
    Training topics include dynamics of domestic abuse, elder abuse, effects of family violence on children, relevant legal and social issues, safety planning and crisis intervention.
    Upon successful completion of the training, four CEU’s will be available from the University of Maine.
    The training is offered free of charge with the expectation of a volunteer commitment. 
    Our next training will begin March 31 and meet every Monday and Wednesday for six weeks here in our Dover-Foxcroft office.
    Please call 564-8165, email ginger@wmncare.org  or call the PVAEC at 564-6525 for more information or to register.