Children's Disaster Services Volunteer Workshop - Sykesville, MD:

Children’s Disaster Services volunteers provide a calm, safe and reassuring presence in the midst of the chaos that follows disaster by setting up & operating special child care centers in disaster locations. Parents are then able to apply for assistance and begin to put their lives back together, knowing their children are safe. The information learned at this workshop can be beneficial to anyone working with children.

Just recently, the Critical Response Childcare team, a part of CDS, completed its response to the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 in which 50 people were killed near Buffalo, N.Y. Childcare was provided for families of crash victims. The CRC Team also stayed on to care for children during memorial services and calling hours, as requested by the parents. In 2008, over 140 CDS volunteers spent 11,124 hours caring for almost 3,000 children after Midwest flooding & ice storms, Hurricanes Gustav & Ike, the Metrolink train accident and the California wildfires.

This Children’s Disaster Services workshop will train you to understand and respond to children who have experienced a disaster. Designed for people who have a heart and passion for children, this workshop will help them recognize and understand the fears and other emotions children experience during and following a disaster and how child-led play and various art mediums can start the healing process in children. Participants will experience a simulated shelter, sleeping on cots and eating simple meals. Once the training is completed, participants have the opportunity to become a certified Children’s Disaster Services volunteer by providing two personal references and a criminal & sexual offender background check.

Although many volunteers are motivated by faith, CDS workshops are open to anyone over 18 years of age. Children’s Disaster Services has been meeting the needs of children since 1980, and is a Church of the Brethren Disaster Ministry.
$45.00 for early registration, $55.00 if postmarked less than 3 weeks prior to the workshop

For more information:
CDS office: 1.800.451.4407, ext. 5
E-mail: cds@brethren.org
Web: www.childrensdisasterservices.org
(E-6/09)

Contact Information:

Contact:	Mary K Bunting
Location:	Wesley Freedom United Methodist Church
Address:	961 Johnsville Road Sukesville, MD 21784
Phone:	410-552-1142
E-mail:	cds@brethren.org
On the Web:	www.childrensdisasterservices.org