Become a Volunteer
PEP is staffed by trained volunteers who are the best experts of parenting: they are parents themselves! If your PEP experience was positive and you want to continue growing with the organization, or if your workload has shifted since having a baby, or if you are passionate about helping local families, we encourage you to become a volunteer. Our 12-hour training session is conveniently split between four sessions, and covers all of the services that PEP provides. If your passion is public speaking, or if you’re better behind the scenes, we’d love to utilize your talents.
Please take a moment to review the volunteer responsibilities.
PEP Volunteer Responsibilities:
1) Taking Warmline shifts
When someone calls the warmline (to sign up for a baby basics class or join a group or to ask for advice or a referral about parenting), the answering service gets their name, number and nature of call, then calls the volunteer on-call to call them back. The shifts are 24 hours each (but you are only expected to answer your phone between 8am and 8pm), and you usually get 2-4 calls in that shift, depending on the day, so you can go about your normal business during the shift. If you need to leave your house, give the answering service your cell phone number, have your calls forwarded, or just make sure you return any messages within an hour. Each volunteer does 1 shift per month. A lot of times the caller just needs someone to listen to them, but more serious PPD calls are deferred to specially-trained volunteers.
2) Speaking or taking part in a Baby Basics Class
They are taught by a panel of parent volunteers and held once per month on the first Saturday of the month. The topics are Safety, Feeding, Diapering, Behavior, Bathing and Postpartum Distress. Practice your public speaking skills with our carefully-crafted script on a topic you already know about! We expect each Volunteer to participate 1-2 times per year in Baby Basics classes, and to stay for the entire class, including set-up and clean-up. Please leave your children at home. We provide partial reimbursement for babysitting.
3) Facilitating a Weekly New Parent Discussion Group
Two volunteers will facilitate the group that meets every Wednesday morning for two months before the group breaks off and meets on their own. Facilitation involves arranging the speakers, keeping an updated roster, and starting the discussion each morning with ground rules and other relevant business. Once the group gets going on the discussions, we try as facilitators to refrain from talking too much and let the group bond with each other. Because it is one of our larger commitments, we ask that each Volunteer facilitate one group per year, but we understand that might not realistically fit into everyone’s schedule. Please leave your children at home. We provide partial reimbursement for babysitting.
4) Helping with the Annual Fundraiser, Recurring Events, and/or others Special Events
You are asked to help spread the word and participate if you can and there is normally one large fundraiser that requires attendance and help running the event.
Because we offer most of PEP’s services at no charge to our participants, it is our responsibility to raise the funds necessary to keep the organization running. You are asked to help spread the word and participate if you can. We offer many smaller-scale events on a regular basis that are fun and make money, as well as 1-2 large fundraisers that require 100% participation from all Volunteers. We have subcommittees that organize the Volunteers to be efficient and respectful of everyone’s time.
5) Doing Childbirth Class Presentations
Childbirth classes are held throughout the community and are usually held in the evenings or weekends. We have a volunteer give a 10-15 minute presentation to educate new parents on PEP’s services. Each Volunteer does 1-2 presentations per year. Young children are welcome to come along.
6) Making Postpartum Calls
If a parent filled out a white card at a childbirth class, a faire PEP attended, or at a Baby Basics class, a Volunteer calls them 1-2 weeks after their due date to check on the new family’s health and well-being, and to invite them to New Parent Groups. The white cards contain the parent’s name, phone and email address. Each Volunteer makes calls about two times per year (about 10 calls in two batches), and can be done at the Volunteer’s most convenient time of day.
7) Attending General Volunteer Meetings
The PEP Board meets on the first Wednesday of every month. General Meetings are the first Wednesday of every month. The purpose of these meetings is to catch up on what’s going on with all the services and PEP in general, to get to know each other, have fun, and to have speakers or discussions to keep us well-trained. Please plan on attending all general meetings. Meetings cover topics such as budgeting, the status of each service, ongoing training, marketing, growth & development, and community presence. Board positions run on our fiscal calendar (April 1 – March 31), and utilize talents of all sorts. General Meetings are not held in April or December.
THERE ARE ALSO BOARD POSITIONS FOR THE AMBITIOUS, BUT MOST VOLUNTEERS WAIT AT LEAST A YEAR BEFORE TAKING ON ONE OF THESE POSITIONS.
If you accept these responsibilities, and are interested in joining us as a PEP Volunteer, please email trainer@sbpep.org for more information on our next training session.