Florence Crittenton Home volunteers enrich the lives of others in many ways.  Serving as little as one hour per week, you can provide encouragement, boost someone’s self esteem, and brighten someone’s future.  Choose the volunteer program that will make the best use of your personal talents, and give the gift of your time!
Florence Crittenton Home programs that need volunteers include:

• Mentor Program
  Our mentors are at least 25 years old, and have held a steady job for the past year.  Mentors are matched with young mothers from our program, and together they forge a meaningful adult relationship.  In mentoring at Florence Crittenton Home, the relationship you create could possible change a young woman’s life forever.

• Child Enrichment Center Volunteer Program
  The Child Enrichment Center is an independently licensed child care facility within our home.  The Child Enrichment Center provides services to clients from the Florence Crittenton Home program as well as members of the larger Helena community.  Volunteers in the CEC work alongside our two paid staff members to consistently maintain a more personal staff-to-child ratio.  CEC hours are 8:30 to 4:00 M-F; with 3 shifts each day.

• Baby-Sitters Program
  Florence Crittenton Home clients participate in an educational or therapeutic group each weekday from 3:30 until 4:30.  Groups include “Loving Your Baby From the Inside Out,” Parenting, Emotional Regulation, Bonding and Attachment, Chemical Dependency, and more.  Volunteers in the Group-Time Baby-Sitters Program commit to a regular, weekly schedule, providing baby-sitting coverage while moms are in group.  The shift starts at 3:15 and should end around 4:45.  In addition to this weekly opportunity, we also maintain an on-call  “baby-sitters list” so that our young mothers have the option to secure a baby- sitter for occasional evenings or afternoons out.

• Animal Assisted Therapy
  Our Animal Assisted Therapy program recruits animal handlers to work directly with one of our clients, on a scheduled, weekly basis. The volunteer will work closely with the client’s treatment team, to ensure that their Animal Assisted Therapy sessions will be beneficial to the client’s on-going treatment plan. The match between client and animal handler will be made by the clinical team at Florence Crittenton.

• Art and Music Therapy Program
  Florence Crittenton Home is a TV-free facility.  We hope that our young families will discover new personal enrichment and entertainment possibilities while in our program.  To that end, we provide as many and various non-television options as possible.  If you have a musical or artistic skill, and would like to provide an afternoon or evening creativity workshop, please submit a one-page proposal to the Volunteer Coordinator.

• Day of Service Opportunities
  We sometimes have facilities and maintenance projects that could easily be done by your group as a Service Opportunity.  One-day opportunities primarily include warm weather tasks such necessary tasks as lawn care, grounds keeping, snow shoveling, flower bed planting, etc.  Contact the Volunteer Coordinator to find out about any current needs, or to be put your group on a waiting list.

• Book Club
  Our clients participate in a monthly book club, run by a volunteer from the Lewis and Clark Public Library.  We have other volunteers help to coordinate and facilitate the book group and discussion, and also are in need of baby-sitters while moms participate in book group. 

• Community Garden
  The residents and staff of Florence Crittenton Home have created a wonderful community garden on our campus.  Our clients plant in the spring, maintain the garden throughout the summer, harvest in the autumn, and then process the products in late fall.  We often rely on volunteers to help with these garden-related tasks.

• Independent Life Skills Program
  While in residence at Florence Crittenton Home, all our clients participate in an Independent Life Skills Program.  This program offers various opportunities to learn the many skills necessary to live productively on their own as single moms in the community.  If you have a skill you would feel comfortable teaching, please contact Maureen Shaughnessy, our Independent Life Skills and Recreation Counselor.
  
  
• Holiday Gift Program
  Holidays are a special time in the lives of all families – and particularly important for young moms with new babies who are far from their homes!  We often have flowers delivered for Valentine’s Day; gift baskets arrive for Mother’s Day; Easter baskets and egg hunts on Easter Morning; and of course we want to make sure there are appropriate presents under the Christmas tree…. If you can help to coordinate a gift-giving program, please contact The Volunteer Coordinator to find out current holiday needs.
  
  
• Lawn Care Volunteers
  This volunteer will be responsible for mowing the lawn, trimming the edges, sweeping the walkways of any stray clippings, and generally giving lawn a clean/neat appearance.  Florence Crittenton will supply gasoline for the lawn care equipment.
  
  
• Party Planners
  At Florence Crittenton’s Center for Pregnant and Parenting Teens, we celebrate life’s milestones and accomplishments.  Parties are thrown for the following five occasions:  baby showers, birthday for mom, birthday for child, graduation from schooling, and discharge/goodbye.  This program recruits, trains, and manages volunteer groups that take on the role of planning and decorating for these parties.  Each volunteer group will be assigned to one particular type of party.  For example, your group might be in charge of all baby showers.  Another group will be responsible for moms’ birthday parties.
  

Please consider volunteering for one of these programs – together, we can improve the lives of at-risk teen girls, teen moms, and their children. 

>> Steps to becoming a Florence Crittenton Home volunteer
>> Volunteer Handbook
>> Application Packet

For more information on volunteering please contact:

Deb Williams
Volunteer Coordinator
442-6950 x 215