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A Semi-Annual Newsletter of Crisis Support Services of Alameda County
Crisis Support Matters
Spring 2007 |
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2007: A Great Year to Start Volunteering!
By Claire Isaacs Wahrhaftig, Volunteer Outreach Coordinator
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“The most significant occurrence that happened in the
year 2000 was that I became a volunteer at CSS.” Bob S.
We’re hoping that 2007 will be your year. We’re hoping that
wonderful things will happen to you and your loved ones. And we’re hoping that
2007 will be the year that you decide to volunteer at CSS—a commitment that will
bring you a powerful sense of accomplishment, and a commitment that will improve
the lives of the most vulnerable members of our community.
At CSS we always welcome new volunteers. And because we treasure
our volunteers, we provide them with a great free training program with ongoing
personal and professional support. All of our training activities are supervised
by our professional counseling staff.
As a new volunteer, you receive four months of training. You meet
once a week with your one-on-one trainer, and you take workshops that help you
develop the skills you’ll need to staff our crisis phone lines. Step by step,
our program offers you the security, support, and confidence that will enable
you to become an effective volunteer. Required classes on specific subjects such
as dealing with depressed persons, or with teenagers, are offered periodically.
Once you have graduated, we ask that you spend the remainder of the
year answering the crisis phone lines, scheduling yourself for a four-hour shift
between 8 a.m. and midnight, one day a week.
After you’ve completed your training, you are also eligible to participate in
two other vital CSS programs. For our Senior In-Home Counseling Program, we rely
on volunteers who can offer emotional support to homebound seniors. Through our
Teens for Life Suicide Prevention and Education Program, we send volunteers to
speak at local middle schools and high schools. By addressing programs to the
oldest and the youngest members of our community, we try to serve the two high
risk groups for suicide.
If you are interested in becoming a CSS volunteer, please call me at
510-420-3204.
I would also be happy to schedule a presentation—for your service organization,
business committee, or neighborhood group—on what we do here at CSS and why we
do it. If you would like us to speak to your group, PLEASE PHONE!
“I find my regular shift to be one of the most rewarding
experiences that I have. Working on the crisis line pulls me out of myself and
focuses my attention on other people's lives in a way that refreshes me. I
return to my own life with a better perspective and a different sense of my
place in the world. …That's hard to beat.” Gordon A.
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--Letter from our Executive Director--
Dear Friends of CSS, Thank
you for helping us to celebrate forty years of service. CSS is blessed with a
magnificent staff, but we couldn't do our work without all of you. We began
forty years ago as a volunteer-based agency, and you have helped us remain true
to that founding spirit.
We want to thank you for the time, effort, and financial support that you have
contributed over the years. Some of you have generously given your time by
answering our 24/7 crisis line and visiting homebound seniors. Some of you have
contributed your vision and administrative skills by serving as volunteer Board
Members. Some of you are licensed mental health professionals who have donated
your services by supervising interns. Some of you have trained with us,
counseling parents who have lost a child to suicide or homicide. Some of you
have brought suicide-prevention services to local schools. Many of you have
supported our work with charitable gifts.
We also honor and cherish all of you for having helped to reduce the stigma and
shame around the topic of suicide. And we appreciate it whenever you tell others
in the community about our services and about volunteer opportunities at CSS.
And to those of you who have thanked us for having helped you, we are most
gratified to know that we have served you well. That is why we come to work each
day filled with enthusiasm and hope.
We proudly and humbly celebrate our 40th year.
Best wishes for a peaceful and healthy 2007.
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CSS by the Numbers
40th Anniversary Edition,
By Maggie Galvez, MPA
This year marks Crisis Support Services’ 40th anniversary. In celebration of our
anniversary we want to share some of the history of our growth with you. Crisis
Support began operations 1966 as a pilot project. We had $1,038 donated dollars
and a half-time administrator who was paid $5 per hour. In that first year of
operation Crisis Support answered 4,092 calls and rescued 2 suicidal callers.
Over the next twenty years, Crisis Support’s growth was dramatic and confirmed
that the community was in need of our services. By the early 1990’s Crisis
Support Services’ volunteers were answering over 40,000 calls per year. In 1991
volunteers rescued 48 imminently suicidal callers and visited over 2,000 high
school student to teach them about depression and suicide prevention. Although
the earlier growth was dramatic, it continued without pause through our 40th
anniversary. In 2006, Crisis Support volunteers answered 56,816 hotline calls,
performed 103 emergency rescue/outreach calls, and visited 12,511 junior and
high school students in Alameda County.
Over the last four decades, Crisis Support has answered 1.2 million calls from
people in need, rescued 2,534 suicidal callers at imminent risk of harming
themselves, and shared information on suicide prevention and education with
124,009 junior and senior high school students through our “Teens for Life”
program. We’d like to thank those who’ve supported us to serve the community
over the last 40 years and hope to continue to grow to meet the needs of
underserved Alameda County residents.
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YEAR END TOTAL NUMBERS
and SUM OVER 40 YEARS |
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1966 |
1991
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2006 |
Over 40 years |
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Calls answered |
4,092
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40,000+ |
56,816 |
1.2 million |
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Callers rescued
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2
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48 |
106 |
2,534 |
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Teens educated |
0 |
2,000 |
12,511 |
124,009 |
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CSS Board Vice President Helps on Many Fronts
Sadegh Nobari, MFT, continues to volunteer with Crisis Support Services, while
taking a leadership role in the agency.
By Juanita Carroll Young
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Sadegh Nobari, the new vice
president of our board of trustees. Since 1996, Sadegh has demonstrated his
devotion to the mission of CSS by serving as a volunteer. He joined the board in
1999, and was named vice president in January 2006.
What brought you to CSS?
I was working toward my Marriage and Family Therapy license, and as part of my
trainee work, I co-facilitated a grief group for children and a simultaneous
group for their parents. I met an intern who spoke highly of CSS and its very
strong training program. I believed that a broad internship experience would be
best for me, so I applied to CSS and began in September 1996 as a volunteer
intern.
I stayed at CSS beyond the initial one-year commitment because the training was
indeed strong. I benefited from the mentorship of four different clinical
supervisors. All of them were volunteers as well. I was afforded the opportunity
to work on the crisis line, to visit elders at their homes, to provide grief
therapy for individuals, and to serve as co-facilitator of a group to comfort
survivors of the suicide of a loved one.
After you had been volunteering, did you have any concerns about participating
on the CSS Board?
Over the years I met a lot of wonderful people from the CSS Board in group
supervision meetings. One of my shift partners was a volunteer representative on
the CSS Board. Toward end of 1999, as I was preparing for my license, there was
an opportunity for a volunteer representative position. I had expressed my
willingness to be a part of CSS in a different capacity. I felt very honored
when I was given an opportunity to interview with Pat Shanks and Susan Sniderman
for the position, and of course elated when I was offered a board membership.
Being part of the board has helped me stay connected to the agency.
How have things changed?
During the time that I’ve been with CSS, I’ve seen more programs expand or
develop: school-based counseling, “Teens for Life” suicide education, critical
incidence debriefing, and the senior in-home counseling. Over time, my role with
CSS has made me more involved in decision-making, but sometimes I miss giving
direct services to clients. But now I have the opportunity to supervise new
interns, which is nice. [Sadegh is one of approximately eighteen licensed mental
health professionals who volunteer their time to supervise counseling interns
who provide direct services in the life-saving programs of CSS.]
What do you do as a board member?
I have been the CSS Board Vice-President since January 2006. I am on the finance
committee, where we discuss the agency’s budget and review its financial status.
I will also chair the personnel committee this year.
What motivates you?
Giving back. I had wonderful training and supervision when I was a CSS intern,
and now I continue that legacy.
Would you encourage others to volunteer for CSS?
Of course. Absolutely. Going through the training program, learning skills
there, can help you have a better sense of how to deal with crises, wherever
they occur.
What do you think the public should know about suicide?
There is a stigma around depression and mental illness, which is sad. We try not
to see it. If I saw a person bleeding, I’d say “get medical help!” But in our
culture we don’t encourage someone to get help in a crisis or for emotional
suffering. Of course, the stigma and silence around suicide is even deeper than
for depression.
What do you do for fun?
Hiking, especially going to Point Reyes, and listening to music. |
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Juggling Plates:
A profile of Crisis Support Service’s Volunteer Coordinator, Binh Au.
What a full life Binh Au has! As the Volunteer Coordinator at CSS, Binh is
busy with phone counseling, scheduling, motivating, and training duties.
With all the challenges at work, Binh takes care of himself by nurturing
varied outside interests, including teaching Israeli dancing and playing the
guitar.
Binh teaches dance at a local synagogues and in religious school for
children K-7th. He also writes music and plays the guitar. CSS staff and
volunteers benefited from Binh’s creativity and talent at the2006 Annual
Dinner, where Binh performed a song that was inspired by his crisis line
work.
Creating a sense of community is an important value to Binh. That value
drives Binh’s involvement with Israeli dance as well as his work as
Volunteer Coordinator at CSS. At CSS, Binh seeks to foster a sense of
community through programming events such as the annual picnic and volunteer
dinner, by creating a fun atmosphere, and through his support of volunteers
on the hotline. Binh also enjoys bringing staff and volunteers together
while decorating the agency for the holidays and coordinating dance parties.
Binh says: “In Israeli dance, we hold hands to create a complete circle.
This circle represents a community which is connected as we dance. The
crisis lines represent the circle that we all dance in. The volunteers are
the dancers. We are a community.”
Thanks Binh, for taking the time to tell our Board, staff, and volunteers
more about yourself and for all the hard work you do!
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Donor List 2007 |
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Click here to see our
Spring 2006
Newsletter |
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Click here to see our
Fall 2005
Newsletter |
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Click here to see our Fall
2000 Newsletter |
