Volunteer Opportunities
Orientation: Talitha Koum is most grateful to have volunteer participants, some with regularly scheduled participation and others who offer on-call availability for special purposes. Read below and consider joining our RISE Guild. We encourage all volunteers to attend an Orientation, yet it is only required for those who will directly engage with our children or parents.
Registration is required for orientations. To inquire about upcoming dates or to let us know you will attend, please call Marge Dawson at 753-1144 or email Marge@TalithaKoum.org. Please bring $2 cash to the orientation to cover the cost of the criminal background check required by our license. We look forward to sharing our joy and hope!
- Spend a minimum of one hour playing with our children on a scheduled basis, weekly or bi-weekly. Our classrooms are broken into four age groups: Infants, Toddlers, Preschool, and Pre-K/Kindergarten.
Times for volunteering are mornings (anytime during a period from 7:30 until 11 a.m.) and afternoons (from 1:30 until 4:30 p.m.).
- Administrative assistance (i.e. bulk mailings, other clerical duties)
- Work with our swimming pool program (June-August only)
- Prepare or purchase our dinner for Parenting Meeting. Most months of the year that means also preparing the meal for children. We meet weekly with parents on Tuesday between 6 and 7 in the evening. Childcare is provided by a Baylor Psychology class who facilitate children as they eat a simply prepared meal. If you or your class or group might wish to participate, please call Marge Dawson at 753-1144 for more information.
- Sign up to be contacted and join us for quarterly work sessions where we pitch in on building and grounds upkeep.
- Introduce us to new groups (church, civic, fraternal, and family) by arranging for a speaking opportunity for one of our staff or Mission Group members. Let us know if AV equipment is available.
- Each Tuesday night when Parenting Meetings are held, an array of Pick a Gift items are displayed so that parents leave with some food and clothing for the family as well as small gift items, on occasion, for Moms and Dads. We need help with weekly display and cleanup. Displaying items can take place Monday and/or Tuesday so long as the display is ready by 6:00 p.m. each Tuesday.
- Help rearrange and clean out our Pick a Gift closet (needed quarterly and taking several people several hours to accomplish).
- Recruit and/or provide Pick a Gift items: lightly used children’s clothes (infants through 14), candles, lotion, bath items, picture frames, little gifts for Moms and Dads.
Real Interest • Supportive Energy
- Talitha Koum means, “My child, rise up!” It’s a tall order to elevate the lives of children from deepest poverty. For Talitha Koum to RISE, we need a host of committed devotees and friends ~ community members who come alongside – effectively.
- Whether that means you raise interest for Talitha Koum among your friends, answer TKI’s phones for a couple of hours, repair a broken door, volunteer to prep a mailing, sterilize our toys, mow the lawn, request hand-me-downs for our parents’ Pick a Gift closet, recommend us for a speaking engagement, or offer a unique talent we can’t even name ~ that’s when Talitha Koum will RISE!
- We are seeking men and women of prayer and action. What about you?
Let us know of your interest here.
- Do you hold an interest in seeing these children continue to excel until they wear a cap and gown? We need dedicated mentors who take that responsibility for one child with the intention of being present in his or her life until she or he goes to college or into productive employment. Click here to read the goals of our mentoring program and learn more about how mentors interact with children. Some mentors act as individuals, some as couples, others as teams of two who share a particular child.
- Mentoring begins when the child is launched from Talitha Koum to attend Kindergarten in a local school.
- It is best if the mentor has entered the program in advance so that the mentor gets to know the child while he or she is still in our care at Talitha Koum during the Pre-K year. During that time the mentor will likely be drawn to mentoring a particular child.
- Significant mentoring program support is provided through Talitha Koum’s Clinical Director, Nurture Center Director and by way of our long-held relationships with the parents of our children. In addition, mentors offer mentoring counsel and ideas to each other.
- For further information or to enter the Talitha Koum Mentoring application process, call Becky Lloyd, Talitha Koum Mentor Coordinator, at 366-4786 or email to BeckyVLloyd@gmail.com. Or simply fill out the application and attach it to an email to Becky. She’ll be in touch with you for a time you may visit for an interview and confidential information on the children entering the mentoring program.
- Volunteers who will work in a classroom must attend a Volunteer Orientation prior to volunteering and we would like for all volunteers in any capacity to do so. Please contact Talitha Koum’s Administrative Assistant, Marge Dawson by email: Marge@TalithaKoum.org, or by calling 753-1144.
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