Deciding to Make a Difference in Life : It’s not easy finding the time and energy to volunteer. But those who help others say they get back more than they give.
In the small Midwestern community in which I grew up, helping those in need formed a large part of my mother’s life. Her days were filled with charity luncheons, fund-raising booths and bake sales, visits to the hospital, condolence calls.
Her life differed from mine in that she did not attempt the juggling act of managing career and family. What she gained--and what I’ve lost--was a connection with community, a sense of involvement in her neighbors’ lives.
If someone was ill or dying, if a family fell on hard times financially, my mother and her friends knew about it and helped out in any way they could.
For most of us these days, things are different. I barely know my neighbors--we all lead busy lives--and for me, being useful to others is a wonderful idea. Unfortunately, that is about as far as my good intentions have gone.
New Year’s resolutions come and go, while I get bogged down in details and justifications: I don’t have the time or the energy. The needs are too great--how will I choose the right organization? If I find myself tearful when I watch the evening news, what makes me think I will have the strength to confront real poverty and illness without plunging into despair?
And there are more thoughts that inevitably nag me, thoughts informed by cynicism and a feeling of helplessness--the friends of isolation: What good does it do anyway? Can I be of any real help, or am I simply assuaging a guilty conscience? With the plague of ills besetting our world, how will anything I do be any more than a drop in the bucket?
In trying to break through the inertia, I set about getting some advice from the experts, long-term volunteers, on getting started.
Gordon and Lois Saue, realtors at Century 21 County Center office in Ventura, began working at Project Understanding’s Family to Family during the holiday season four years ago. Soon others from their office joined in. Now it’s become an annual office tradition, and other real estate agencies in town have taken up the idea.
“Lois and I try to help Project Understanding every chance we get,” Saue told me. “It’s not all that much, maybe a couple of hours a week. But we’ve decided that this is the charity, locally, that we support. It just feels that we’re fortunate, and the least we can do is to give something back to this world that needs so much help.”
The Saues are among a large contingent of Ventura County residents who each year perform some sort of volunteer work and on whom community organizations rely. According to the city of Ventura’s volunteer coordinator, Dorie Alvarez, the services performed by volunteers are so varied and widespread that it is impossible to give an accurate accounting.
Volunteers in Ventura County serve meals to the needy, work in child-abuse prevention programs, glean fields for produce, serve in hospice programs, drive cancer and AIDS patients to medical appointments, maintain trails for the Forest Service, shelve books in local libraries, serve as literacy tutors, stuff envelopes and answer phones. The list of duties and services would fill a book.
And since Southern California’s Jan. 17 temblor, quake cleanup and aid to victims have been added to the much-needed work done by volunteers.
Some are motivated by the need to combat isolation in coping with forces too large to comprehend, such as the destruction wrought by a major earthquake or fire. Others want to take some positive action in a world fraught with insoluble problems.
Paul Starbard of Ojai became frustrated by the vicious cycle of problems he saw on the evening news and the helplessness he felt. “Every night you see three things: The economy is in trouble, our kids are in trouble, the environment is in trouble,” he said. “And every night I would think, ‘There must be some way of putting these three things together.’ ”
Starbard’s solution was to form Concerned Resource and Environmental Workers, an organization that raises donations to employ youths, ages 14 to 21, in the Los Padres National Forest. Working with the U.S. Forest Service, CREW maintains trails and has built bathrooms in Rose Valley and a wheelchair-accessible horse trail, at the same time giving jobs to young people who may not otherwise be able to find employment.
“I saw this as a small thing I could do to help,” Starbard said. “People often have good ideas but they get stuck because they don’t think it’s possible to get them done. But what I’ve found with CREW is, if you start small and keep at it, you can make a difference.”
Some volunteers have been directly affected by illness or loss, and they want to support an organization that helps in a time of need.
Steve Dunbar lost his job with an optical company when his employer found out he had tested HIV-positive. This, Dunbar said, led to a financial and emotional crisis and a suicide attempt.
Now receiving disability, Dunbar works as a volunteer at AIDS Care in Ventura, where he handles crisis and information calls, helps run the food bank and transportation service, and lends emotional support to clients.
“After I lost my job, AIDS Care really kept me from going under, psychologically and financially,” he said. “So I decided to put some time in here, to try to help others who are in the same boat. I give advice, talk and mainly listen. In this way, I hope I can repay the help that I received.”
In a world of overwhelming need, it may seem difficult to sort out how best to spend the few hours that you can carve out for volunteer efforts. But finding the job that fits your abilities and schedule can be done.
Most organizations will arrange an interview to help potential volunteers clarify the job for which they are best suited, and some serve as clearinghouses, sending volunteers to different groups.
Debbie Hill, director of HELP of Ojai, works with 45 organizations in the Ojai Valley and interviews volunteers to assess their skills, interests, hobbies and time availability.
“We find that if the work is enlivening and enjoyable to the volunteer, they’re more likely to stick with it. It just works out better for everyone that way,” Hill said. “If you have a related hobby, so much the better.”
In the end, after working out the scheduling and finding the right job, volunteers say that it’s well worth it. “What I’m privileged to watch every day is the power of the cooperative spirit at work,” Dunbar said. “And seeing that makes it all worthwhile.”
Kathy Field, who has worked as a volunteer for the Hospice of the Conejo for 10 years, said that her volunteer work is perhaps the most rewarding aspect of her life.
“It can be tough, because everyone we work with is terminal. But for me the positives far outweigh the negatives. I’ve learned how precious life is, how important it is to value each day and to realize that the trivialities that upset me from moment to moment are just that: trivial,” Field said.
“Sure, I still become involved in my petty problems at times, but when I put it in the larger picture, I see that I have nothing to complain about. And people are so appreciative. I receive much more back from this work than I give.”
Where to Get Started
Opportunities for volunteers in Ventura County cover a wide range of needs, interests, skills and time commitments. All agencies contacted for this story were looking for volunteers. But application requirements, training and duties vary by agency.
The following is a partial list--by no means comprehensive--of agencies and organizations countywide that need volunteer help.
FOOD, CLINICS & SHELTERS
* Conejo Free Clinic (80 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks) needs patient advocates, nurses and receptionists. A once-a-month commitment is asked. Call Sharron Baird, 497-3575.
* Family to Family of Project Understanding (660 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura) serves lunch 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Total Life Christian Center. Call Pat McLean, 643-4882.
* Food Share (4156 Southbank Road, El Rio) distributes food to the needy throughout Ventura County. Volunteers glean fields (Monday through Friday mornings at designated locations), work in warehouse (truck and forklift drivers, computer operators, counter for distribution of food to agencies) and help in the office. Volunteers pay a $15 membership fee to cover insurance and newsletter, and are asked a minimum eight-hour-per-month commitment. Call volunteer coordinator Mary Ann Staples, 647-3944.
* Ojai Family Shelter provides nightly emergency shelter and food for the homeless. Needs volunteers to help with food service and drivers with manual shift experience. Call Harold Nufer, 646-5924, or Kay, 646-6148.
FAMILIES & CHILDREN AT RISK
* Child Abuse and Neglect (CAAN) (1787 Mesa Verde Ave., Ventura; 215 N. Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks) needs volunteers to work in school child-abuse prevention programs, teach parenting skills, work as crisis counselors and help with fund-raising, newsletters and clerical work. Training required. Call volunteer coordinator, 644-1555.
* Interface (1305 Del Norte Road, Camarillo) needs volunteer counselors in Thousand Oaks, Ventura, Simi Valley and Oxnard to work with abused children, teen-agers and families in crisis, victims of domestic violence and rape, the Big Brother/Big Sister program, and help in the office. Training required for some jobs. Call volunteer coordinator, 485-6114.
* Planned Parenthood (5400 Ralston St., Ventura) volunteers help with birth control and pregnancy counseling, patient advocacy and clerical work. Training required for counselors. Call April Fernandez, 658-3232.
SUPPORT FOR THE SICK & DYING
* AIDS Care (121 N. Fir St., Suite A, Ventura) needs volunteer help in all areas, including hospital visitations, residential care, educational outreach, information referral and crisis calls, medical, legal and mental health referrals, funeral arrangements, food bank, newsletter production and special events. Volunteer meetings held second Tuesday each month at 6:30 p.m. Some programs require training. Call 643-0446 for application.
* American Cancer Society (1363 Del Norte Road, Camarillo) needs drivers throughout the county to transport cancer patients to medical appointments; also needs graphic artists, clerical workers, bookkeepers, and help with speakers bureau and Discovery Shop. Call 983-8864 or 497-0114.
* Hospice of the Conejo (80 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks) volunteers provide in-home hospice support for the dying and their families, give respite to care givers, visit patients, help with funeral arrangements and in the office. Extensive training focuses on listening skills and emotional, spiritual and psychological support for the dying and their families. Call Grethe Rivera, 495-2145.
* Livingston Memorial of the Visiting Nurses Hospice (1996 Eastman Ave., Ventura; 325 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks) volunteers give respite to care givers, visit patients, help in funeral preparations, run errands for families of patients, care for families through grief and bereavement and help with fund-raising. Extensive training course meets for four weeks on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Call 656-5957, Ext. 770.
LITERACY
* Laubach Literacy needs volunteer reading tutors for adults, English-speaking and foreign-born, throughout the county; volunteers also help with publicity, fund-raising and special programs. Tutors receive 18 hours of training. Call 485-0064.
* Library Literacy Project needs reading tutors for English-speaking adults. Requires one-day training class. In Simi Valley , Moorpark and Conejo Valley, call 529-2060; Camarillo, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, 385-8600; Ventura and Ojai, 652-6294; Fillmore, 524-4922.
LIBRARIES
* Ventura County libraries need storytellers, shelvers, administrative help, computer operators and volunteers for the Books-to-Grow-On program. Special request: a high-energy organizer to supervise volunteers. Training varies. Call the supervisor at your local library or call Trish Cavanaugh, 652-7517, for application.
ELDERLY
* Caregivers volunteers provide one-on-one friendship and in-home support to elderly, including transportation, housekeeping and home maintenance, personal care; two to four hours weekly or biweekly. Call 652-0566 in Ventura, 525-5006 in Santa Paula, 524-5665 in Fillmore.
* HELP of Ojai provides volunteers to 45 agencies in the Ojai Valley, including Little House Senior Center, Oak Tree House Senior Day Support Center, Meals on Wheels, elementary schools, transportation service. Training may be required. Call Debbie Hill, 646-7787.
* Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) provides volunteers 55 and over to 87 agencies, including Interface, Meals on Wheels, American Cancer Society, Food Share, Jewish Family Service, Coalition Against Domestic Violence, police departments, Laubach Literacy, Livingston Memorial hospice program, libraries. Call Joanne Roach in Oxnard, 385-8020, or Debbie Hill in Ojai, 646-7787.
PROTECT THE WILDERNESS
* Friends of the Santa Clara River (660 Randy Drive, Newbury Park) needs wildlife biologists and help with mailings, research, newsletters and clean-up operations. Information meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month at Fillmore Memorial Building, 2nd and Center streets, 7 p.m. Call Ron Bottorff, 498-4323.
* Keep the Sespe Wild (P. O. Box 715, Ojai) volunteers can help with trash pickup once a month on California 33 near Rose Valley, or can join Adopt-a-Campsite program, where individuals and groups care for a site in the Sespe watershed. Call Alasdair Coyne, 646-5960.
* Los Padres Forest Service and CREW need volunteers to help with upgrading campsites, replanting, trash cleanup, fire rehabilitation, trail maintenance, wildlife biology projects. Group volunteer days are held the second Saturday of the month. Call Charlie Robinson or Leslie Jehnings at 646-4348, or Paul Barbard at 646-5085.