A Project to Pair Volunteers, Families With Special Needs

The nonsectarian Family Friends Project of the Jewish Family Service and the UCLA Medical Center has about 100 volunteers throughout the Los Angeles area who make weekly visits to families with special needs.

The families may have children who are chronically ill. One or both parents may be disabled or they may be under some other kind of strain, such as a family with quintuplets. About 10% of those in the program have emigrated from other countries and have few friends and limited English-language abilities.

Family Friends Project Director Terry Shajirat said volunteers may take the children to parks, museums or libraries, sit with other children while the parent takes one to the doctor, or stand in as grandparents at a school’s grandparents night.

Shajirat said it has proved difficult to recruit volunteers, but once they are found, the average match with a family lasts five years. Some have lasted longer than a decade.

Anyone interested in volunteering may call the project office at (818) 761-3447. Volunteers must attend 12 hours of training over three sessions, go through a fingerprint check for a criminal record, attend a monthly session with a supervisor and make a commitment to at least one year of weekly visits of two to four hours.

“What we have heard over the years, again and again, from the volunteers is that they receive far more than they give, and that their lives are so enriched and enhanced in these intimate relationships that develop with them and their families,” Shajirat said.

Families are usually referred to the project by hospital social workers, teachers, other county employees or the Los Angeles Regional Center, which coordinates benefits for children with disabilities.

The Los Angeles Times is highlighting local programs that serve youths and families in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties as part of its holiday campaign to help raise money for worthy causes.

The campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, which includes the long-running summer camp program. The McCormick Tribune Foundation will match the first $500,000 in donations at 50 cents on the dollar, and The Times will absorb all administrative costs.

THE TIMES HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN

Tax deductible donations: Donations (checks or money orders) should be sent to L.A. Times Holiday Campaign, File #56491, Los Angeles 90074-6491. Please do not send cash. Credit card donations can be made at: https://www.latimes.com/holidaycampaign. Contributions of $25 or more will be acknowledged in the Los Angeles Times unless a donor requests otherwise. For more information about the Holiday Campaign call (800) 528-4637 (LA TIMES), Ext. 75480.