Church of the Brethren Newsline
August 5, 2017
by Kathleen Fry-Miller
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) workshops are scheduled for this fall. The website link for registrations is www.brethren.org/cds/training/dates.html . CDS and its trained and certified volunteers provide care for children and families following disasters.
The 27-hour overnight workshops provide required training for volunteers who wish to serve in the program. Anyone age 18 or over is welcome to attend and become a certified CDS caregiver. References and background checks are also required for certification. Once caregivers complete certification, all expenses are paid for disaster responses.
The training is an overnight experience, simulating a shelter situation, and includes an overview of our work, understanding phases of disaster and how we fit in, working with disaster partners and children and family needs following disaster, supporting resilience in children, setting up a children’s center with a Kit of Comfort, ethical guidelines, and the certification process.
Here are the fall 2017 locations, dates, and contact information:
Bridgewater (Va.) Church of the Brethren, Sept. 22-23, contact Gladys Remnant at 540-810-4999 or gremnant@aol.com
Florida Christian Church in Jacksonville, Fla., Sept. 29-30, contact Tina Christian, CDS Gulf Coast Coordinator, at 561-889-2323 or cdsgulfcoast@gmail.com
Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Northville, Mich., Nov. 10-11, contact Jen Pifer at 734-776-1667 or cakegirl680@gmail.com
Little Swatara Church of the Brethren in Bethel, Pa., Nov. 17-18, contact Jean Myers at 610- 678-5247 or Jean@aol.com
In addition, a training workshop is scheduled specifically for Child Life Specialists (CLS) in New York, N.Y., on Sept. 16, 2017. For more information regarding the details of this child life specialized training, visit http://cldisasterrelief.org/childrens-disaster-services-training . To register and send payment, use this link: http://cldisasterrelief.org/new-york-new-york-registration .
— Kathleen Fry-Miller is associate director of Children’s Disaster Services, a program of the Church of the Brethren Global Mission and Service. For more information go to www.brethren.org/cds .
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