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“I’m pretty sure I will be taking off the same amount of time next year,” said Don Helleman of Lindsay, Ontario after spending four weeks in Alabama earlier this year. The 31 year-old construction worker recently volunteered for a month to lead groups from the Toronto, Ontario area as they built a house for an Alabaman family that had lost their home and loved ones in a tornado. “Even knowing the amount of work that will build up while I’m gone, I still feel it is worth it.”
Helleman is not alone. More than 11,000 men, women, and teens have served as part of a Christian Reformed World Relief Committee Disaster Response Services (CRWRC-DRS) work group over the past seven years. While CRWRC-DRS has a roster of about 3,000 trained volunteers who assess needs, clear debris, and rebuild homes after disasters, this other group of 11,000 represents a new demographic of CRWRC-DRS volunteers.
CRWRC-DRS’s traditional volunteer roster tends to be people who are retired or semi-retired and can serve for several months a year. CRWRC’s Group volunteers, on the other hand, come from high schools, colleges, youth groups, families, businesses or other inter-generational groups. More than half are adults who are still part of the active workforce and take time away from those positions to help others.
These individuals and groups are seeking to make a difference during their Spring Break, Christmas break, summer vacation, or other short length of time and CRWRC connects them to ideal opportunities.
The Groups program began in late 2005 following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. In the weeks following the storm, CRWRC ran a phone bank out of a conference room in its Michigan offices to answer phone calls from survivors, reporters, supporters, and people who wanted to volunteer. It was out of this last category of callers that CRWRC-DRS’ Groups Program was born.
“Churches, schools, and families began asking to volunteer as short-term groups to help Katrina survivors,” said Art Opperwall, CRWRC Groups Program Manager.
While these types of requests didn’t fit CRWRC’s existing disaster response or volunteer placement programs, the needs following Hurricane Katrina were so great that it made sense to match up interested volunteers with opportunities to serve. As a result, the Groups Program was born.
As a first step, Opperwall and other CRWRC staff members developed partnerships with a variety of community and non-profit organizations that could match volunteer groups with disaster needs. They then began systematically placing volunteer groups in these opportunities while also equipping them with orientation, support, and a distinctive green t-shirt to wear while volunteering.
“If a group is flexible about going where the needs are greatest, the CRWRC Groups Program can put to work virtually any size group, any age and skill level, for any number of days, any week of the year,” Opperwall said.
The program has been a success. In the past seven years, Opperwall estimates that 850 groups have gone out to help disaster survivors. Well over 300 of these served in Katrina-affected areas, but others have gone to one or more of 125 locations across the United States and Canada. In total, these Groups volunteers have contributed 750,000 hours to CRWRC and worked on 2,800 homes or projects.
In addition to meeting the needs of disaster survivors, the Groups program provides a lot of value to those looking for a great volunteer experience. It gives them a chance to help others in a meaningful way. It also tends to deepen their faith and create great friendships among those who serve together.
“Most groups that go out with CRWRC once want to serve with us again,” Opperwall said. “Many churches, schools, families, and even businesses have caught on to the blessing that is given and received by serving with CRWRC.”
Helleman is one of those people who recognize the value of this type of experience. “We were able to help someone in need. We helped them start to get their lives back in order, restoring some sort of normalcy to what was sure to have been a chaotic time in their lives. We gave them a home that they can be proud of, and hopefully helped bring hope and faith back into their lives,” he said.
“We gave so much, but more important is what we also received,” he added. In addition to providing volunteers with self-worth and joy from helping others, Helleman claims that he and the other volunteers from Toronto also benefitted from the experience by learning from disaster survivors.
“It puts perspective into our own lives when we are having a bad day or are suffering. Maybe it helps reaffirm our faith that God is always with us. God will test you. Bend, but do not break, weather the storm and stand strong, because God is watching over you. You may not always feel His presence, but He is there. In your darkest hours, know that better days are ahead and that you always have a friend in Him,” he said.
CRWRC has a variety of work group opportunities available – from clean-up to reconstruction – in a variety of locations. Group sizes can vary from one to many and the length of service can be from one day, to one week, or much longer.
If you are interested in finding out more about the CRWRC-DRS Groups Program, please call 1-800-848-5818, e-mail [email protected] or click here.