Child Abuse Response Team: Respond to night-time and week-end emergency pager calls when a young child has been sexually assaulted. Meet child and family at hospital to help them through the exam and give them referrals for assistance. Requires 40 hours training. Bilingual (Spanish /Khmer/other) volunteers needed as well as those who can respond from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is part of the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART).
Childcare volunteers—read and do projects with children while they wait for their parents to complete their business with the Long Beach Courts. (Daytime Availability Needed.)
Assist in inviting people to invest in FTC — Invite friends and colleagues to a tour or presentation of FTC’s work with children, "Captain" a table or be a sponsor for the Annual Breakfast.
Assist with clients and their families in the lobby at the Sarah Center Treatment Facility from 3 to 7 p.m. on a weekday. Interact with children waiting for their appointments and/or their siblings and monitor the lobby area.
Team up with another volunteer and present a puppet-assisted presentation on personal safety and good touch/bad touch at schools and other organizations. (Daytime Availability Needed.)
Experienced RV/Truck drivers are needed for a morning or afternoon to drive our 36’ mobile therapy unit to local school sites and back to the office.
Help plan and conduct special activities, such as holiday food and gift collection/distribution, volunteer recognition events and fundraising.
Call 562-422-8472 to volunteer or for any of the opportunities listed,
please click here, fill in the form, print it, and mail it in.
CART is a group of dedicated volunteers who accompany a child and his/her family through the child’s examination for suspected sexual assault or molestation. Members of the CART team sign up for a week’s shift to carry a pager and respond immediately when they receive a call that a child is being brought in to one of the hospitals served by For The Child for such an exam.
As the child’s advocate, CART members may accompany the child into the exam, help the parents cope with what has happened, and help occupy any other children who have come to the hospital with the family. CART members also provide information for the family about the treatment services offered by For The Child for both the child and the parent(s).
Kids’ Place is a wonderfully designed child care facility for children, ages infant to 13, at the Long Beach Superior Court (Ocean Avenue at Magnolia in downtown Long Beach). It is open from 8 AM to Noon and 1:15 to 4:45 PM to parents who have verifiable court business. There are books, games, toys, and computer games available for the children. The center has a unique literacy focus and each child receives a new book on his/her first visit.
In addition to working with children in the Kids’ Place facility, volunteers take books, games, puppets and other activities to children waiting with their parents in the hallways of other floors in the court building. Our goal is to make the court a safer place for children and ensure that their presence is not disruptive to court business.
The Children’s Circle of Friends Breakfast is For The Child’s fundraising event of the year. The purpose of the breakfast is to raise awareness of the issues of child abuse, neglect and children’s mental health and safety in the Greater Long Beach area while raising funds to support services that assist local children and families challenged by these problems.
The breakfast is underwritten by corporations and supporters to allow 100% of all donations made that day to go directly to For The Child programs and services.
The Children’s Circle of Friends Breakfast features compelling stories of children, parents and volunteers and the opportunity to become a partner in making a better future for local children.
Join community, philanthropic and business leaders in supporting the breakfast and services for abused and at-risk children. The success of this event is in the hands of community volunteers and supporters.
You can participate in several ways:If you have any questions about the Children’s Circle of Friends Breakfast, please contact Denise Dahlhausen, Development Director at (562) 422-8472 or e-mail ddahlhausen@forthechild.org.
"In the last analysis, the only things of real value are the people we have loved, the acts of goodness we've performed, and the ways in which we've left the world a better place for generations to come."
Dr. Leo Buscaglia
Aware Bears is a child abuse prevention program written and sponsored by For The Child for children in Kindergarten through Second Grade. It consists of two scripted presentations put on by a team of two volunteers using bear hand puppets. The scripts teach children action steps to take if they are confronted by a stranger or by someone they know who wants to touch them in an inappropriate way. Through the puppets the programs each tell a story about “Bodo, the Aware Bear” using the action steps to keep himself safe.
For The Child operates a 36’ mobile unit (a specially-equipped Winnebago motor home) in order to provide counseling and psychological therapy to children at their schools. Volunteer drivers are needed to take the motor home to its scheduled school site in a morning and return it to For The Child in the afternoon. Transportation between the school site and For The Child before/after delivery of the unit is provided.
From time to time For The Child needs volunteers to help with specific activities, such as fund raising events, Thanksgiving food distribution and Christmas Family-to-Family program and toy drives. On Call volunteers are those whom we can call (with advanced notice) as the need arises. They may sort clothing, wrap gifts, package food, deliver gifts and food or accompany a driver making such deliveries, prepare mailings, and other work that needs to be done. There is no regular commitment or schedule.
Volunteers with skills such as filing, computer entry, telephoning, scheduling and other office functions are also needed for administrative assistance by various staff members. They may help occasionally or on a regular schedule, as their time allows.
For more information or to schedule an interview, contact the Volunteer Coordinator at 562-422-8472.