Countywide : Child Welfare Group Seeks Volunteers

Facing steadily decreasing funding levels, the Children’s Bureau of Southern California is beginning a major volunteer drive to boost staffing at its Orange County office.

The agency, which works for the prevention and treatment of child abuse, needs volunteers in a number of areas, including its daytime child-care programs, which allow adults to attend parenting classes, said Rae Jones-Kitchen, a spokeswoman for the bureau.

A special volunteer orientation session will be held Saturday at the bureau’s Anaheim office, at 50 S. Anaheim Blvd., she said.

From 1 to 3 p.m., bureau officials will present an overview of the agency and its programs, and training will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. for those wanting to start work right away.

Volunteers will have to clear a security check before they receive any assignments, said Yvonne Bustamante, the bureau’s Orange County volunteer coordinator.

Those interested in attending the orientation workshop should call Bustamante at (714) 517-1900 to reserve a space.

Officials are also seeking donations of food, clothing and furniture, Jones-Kitchen said.

The organization, which has been reliant on private funding almost since its inception in 1904, has seen steadily decreasing donations in the past few years due to California’s recession, Jones-Kitchen said. The agency has begun applying for public grant money and bolstered its volunteer efforts to cope with the decreased funding, she added.

“In Orange County, up until a few months ago, we didn’t have an active volunteer effort at all,” Jones-Kitchen said. “Part of it is things we could have paid for in the past. . . . We can’t do that anymore.”