Volunteer Opportunity

TRANSPORT & STOCK SITES - The transportation, delivery and packet assembly takes place once a month. To pick up material at the Board of Education takes around 1 hour and needs to be done between 9:00 am – 12:00 pm or from 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm weekdays. The packet assembly at Woodlands is scheduled for the third Thursday of the month from 1:00 – 2:00 pm, this can be changed if necessary. The delivery and stock of packets at the hospital usually takes 1 hour, and can be done from 9:00 am – 8:00 pm. 

VISITORS AT HOSPITAL - The Volunteer that provides visits meets new parents at Cabell-Huntington Hospital’s Mother/Baby Unit after the birth of their baby.  The visitor talks with the parents about information contained in the portfolio that the visitor will give them regarding the importance of the first five years of a child’s life.  The goal of the project is to increase parents’ knowledge about the impact of early experiences on the development of their child’s brain and give them tools to put the 12 messages of Success By Six into practice. Visitors will also have access to printed information about community resources and other issues (sibling rivalry, fatherhood, etc.) that they may share with other families.   

The visits to the parents at the hospital need to be conducted daily, it usually takes 15 minutes with each parent and depending on the number of volunteers scheduled a volunteer can sign up for one day per week, one day every two weeks or one day  per month.

RAINING REQUIREMENTS FOR VOLUNTEERS
· Complete six hours of instructional training.
· Complete one shift of shadowing visits with trained volunteer.
· Complete at  least one shift  being shadowed by trained volunteer

VISITOR’S QUALIFICATIONS
▪ Ability to talk comfortably with parents of different backgrounds.
▪ Sensitivity to the needs of new parents to talk about their baby and ask questions.
▪ Enthusiasm about the Brain Zone project’s goals and willingness to learn and share program content.
▪ Willingness to learn about community resources.
▪ Be flexible, courteous, and have a positive attitude
▪ Willingness to develop interpersonal skills of active listening, interviewing and empowering.

What is Success By 6 ^®?

Success by 6®, an initiative of United Way, seeks to ensure that all children are ready physically, mentally, developmentally, emotionally and socially to begin kindergarten.  

The United Way Success By 6® is the nation’s largest network of early childhood coalitions, focused on improving school readiness through community change. SB6 coalitions throughout the country have been raising awareness of the importance of early childhood development, improving access to services, advocating for public policies and overhauling systems-budgets, law and support-to improve young children’s lives.

The United Way Born Learning® (www.bornlearning.org)  is a new national public engagement campaign, focused on creating early opportunities for young children. Public service advertising, a Web site and educational materials gives parents and informal caregivers easy, do-able action steps to help young children learn.

The United Way of River Cities Success By Six® initiative is committed to the proposition that it is the simple things that make a difference in building a young child’s foundation for future success. The Born Learning® campaign has shown how to turn everyday activities into opportunities to encourage learning. It is built on the idea that while children are born learning, parents, grandparent and caregivers can encourage that learning in everyday moments. 

Goals:

Success By 6® seeks to build awareness and understanding of the importance of early brain development to the future success of children.

Success By 6® seeks to support and/or initiate public and private collaborations that improve and/or expand the current range of services for children & families.

Who is Success By 6 ^®?

United Way of the River Cities adopted this national initiative beginning in 1999. The local initiative is a collaborative of many community partners, including local child care centers; the pubic school system; local hospitals; local media; and agencies that address early childhood education, health and development.

These partners not only help to identify needs for young children in our community, but also provide representation to the Success By 6® Committee that governs all programming.