If you are interested in becoming a rape crisis counselor, get in touch with your local rape crisis center to see when they have trainings. At mine, there are 2 trainings a year -- one in the fall & one in the spring, at least in terms of "fall semester" & "spring semester". The amount of training necessary will depend on the state (each has a different requirement) & then the specific center. For example, my training was 50-hours because the specific center I volunteer at includes extra hours in the training. We went over things like incest & suicide, which are not generally covered in trainings.
If you are unable to make the time commitment/the timing of the training does not work for you, you should consider volunteering in the office. All organizations can always use the extra help! Especially rape crisis centers, which are among the places being hit by the recession. What you will do while you volunteer will again depend on the center. If there's something you're particularly interested in, talk about that when you contact the volunteer director. They like to play to your strengths! Otherwise, you could go in & do something different each time.
Also, many centers offer internships. These are things to think about if you want to get into the social services industry. The more experience you can get, the better! Plus you know you're doing something to help out, even if it's stuffing envelopes -- someone has to do it!
You can start by checking out the volunteer page for RAINN.
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This is a great post!!!! I love that you told others how to volunteer! Cheers to you! Lookslike the blogathon is going well over here!
ReplyDeleteI used to be a volunteer at a telephone crisis center and the other volunteers were the most wonderful people I have ever met. My volunteer experience was the beginning of my life-long interest in listening. I've even written some of my thoughts about listening here:
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.marcwong.me/2009/01/art-of-listening.html