Are you seeking an opportunity to support Family Service and our programs in a personal, hands-on way? At Family Service, volunteers are valuable members of our agency and community. As a volunteer, you can directly benefit the families and individuals in our care through the ways listed below:
Volunteer for ZOOM Join our pilot transportation program, partnering with area social service agencies, and drive clients to essential appointments within the county. Learn more
Volunteer to drive Project ONE clients living with HIV/AIDS to and from doctor’s appointments. Encourage and talk with clients one-on-one as you travel together. Learn more
Greet clients with HIV/AIDS at Project ONE’s office in the Coatesville Center for Community Health. Provide light administrative support and learn first-hand about HIV/AIDS case management.
As a volunteer for Project ONE, you can provide direct support to people living with HIV/AIDS in Chester County.
Volunteer at our Project ONE office in Coatesville. Greet clients, provide light administrative support, and learn first-hand about HIV/AIDS case management.
Transport clients to and from medical appointments. Meet clients at their homes or other pick-up locations and bring them to regularly scheduled or special appointments. You can provide one-way transportation or two-way. Providing transportation is a great opportunity to meet people living with HIV/AIDS in your community and to learn their stories while ensuring that they are able to access medical care consistently and on time.
For more information about becoming a Project ONE volunteer, contact Project ONE program director:
Keith Burress at 610-696-4900 ext. 129 or kburress@familyservice.us
Provide one-on-one mentoring to a family in the Exchange Club Family Center. Help parents with children (ages 0-12) prevent abuse, strengthen family functioning, and develop safe and healthy homes.
Do you have experience in (a) raising children or (b) supporting children and families in difficult circumstances? Please consider becoming a Volunteer Parent Aide for the Exchange Club Family Center (ECFC).
A Volunteer Parent Aide (VPA) is a mentor or special support aide for parents of young children (infant to age 12) who need assistance in developing safe and healthy homes. With training and oversight from the Exchange Club Family Center, VPAs are matched one-on-one with a family in Chester County. VPAs:
Visit their mentor family at home (or conduct phone calls)Observe parent-child interactions
Teach parents how to discipline and nurture their child(ren)
Teach parents home management skills
Help parents to set goals to improve home safety and healthHelp parents to identify and access local community services and resources
Support and encourage parents and children while they seek to make personal changes
The length of commitment for becoming a VPA is 12 months. The commitment includes receiving Volunteer Parent Aide training, making regular home visits or phone calls to families as agreed upon with each family, and receiving oversight from the Exchange Club Family Center.
Benefits of Becoming a Volunteer Parent AideWhile requiring just a few hours of your week or month for one year, becoming a Volunteer Parent Aide allows people who love children and value healthy families to invest deeply in the life of a local family at a critical time when the family’s personal or financial circumstances could lead to child abuse or neglect.
Benefits to Families
Families thrive with support from Volunteer Parent Aides because of VPAs’ ability to provide personal, one-on-one support, advice and encouragement.
Families who enter the Exchange Club Family Center program often enter with sad and difficult histories, overwhelming personal challenges, and a mountain of circumstantial problems that make their homes unsafe and put their children at risk for abuse or neglect.
Take a low income family in the Exchange Club Family Center “under your wing” for a year. Donate clothing, holiday food, gifts, and other items needed by the family. To learn more please contact our Program Director, Amy DeFonzo, via e-mail at adefonzo@familyservice.us.