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A Children's Disaster Services volunteer helps a boy rebuild his world.
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Nuturing children
Since 1980 Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) has been meeting the needs of children by setting up child care centers in shelters and disaster assistance centers across the nation. Specially trained to respond to traumatized children, volunteers provide a calm, safe and reassuring presence in the midst of the chaos created by tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires any natural or human caused disaster.
Volunteers from across the country
- participate in specialized experiential training
- undergo a rigorous screening process
- learn to work with children after a disaster
- are capable of mobilizing rapidly and responding both locally and nationally.
Volunteers arrive to a disaster location with a “Kit of Comfort” containing carefully selected toys that promote imaginative play. Volunteers give children individualized attention and encourage them to express themselves, thereby starting the healing process. Although many volunteers are motivated by faith, CDS’ training is open to anyone over 18 years old.
CDS provides respite, education and individualized consultation for parents about their child’s unique emotional needs after a disaster. Through consultation or workshops specifically tailored to each situation, CDS also works with parents, community agencies, schools or others to help them understand and meet the special needs of children during or after a disaster.
Contact us
Children's Disaster Services
601 Main Street, P.O. Box 188
New Windsor, MD 21776-0188
Phone:1-800-451-4407
Fax: 410-635-8739
E-mail Children's Disaster Services
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See more Children's Disaster Service videos on YouTube.
Read a new feature article on CDS (PDF, see pages 2-4).
Recent CDS news
- Children’s Disaster Services announces upcoming workshops
(October 5, 2011)
Children’s Disaster Services ( www.brethren.org/cds ), a Church of the Brethren program serving children and families affected by disasters, has announced three workshops this fall. Each offers basic training for volunteers who are interested in working with the program.
- Children's Disaster Services: Helping turn helplessness into hope
(October 5, 2011)
June 2. 9 a.m. Lisa, five years old, walked through the maze of cots in the Joplin Red Cross Shelter with her mother to the Children's Disaster Services (CDS) child care center. Lisa's family lost everything in the Joplin tornado, and had been living in the shelter more than a week.
- Newsline Special: Update on church responses to disasters, hunger
(September 14, 2011)
A report on Church of the Brethren responses to recent disasters in the northeast, including Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, along with a new hunger effort, and more.
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