Interested in becoming a volunteer? We are interested in hearing from you! All prosepctive volunteers are asked to attend a group interview. This 90 minute meeting provides the opportunity for you to learn more about the program, the required training and for us to get to meet you. If you would like information about the group interview please send us an email at info@healingcenterkids.org Include your: name                      telephone numbers                      street address                      city/state/zipcode The next group interview for prospective volunteers will be conducted on July 31, 2008. Time is 6:00p.m. - 7:30p.m. Upon receipt of your email we will confirm your participation, adivse the specific location for the meeting and share the class schedule for the next 25 hour training planned for Novemeber 2008 We look forward to hearing from you!	ALL ABOUT THE HEALING CENTER: Participants attend weekly, age appropriate, support groups at the Center. All support groups meet after school. As an example, our youngest people’s group is for children ages 5 to 7. Each group meets for 75 minutes and has about 10 participants. Unique to our program is the ratio of adults to children. Support groups are facilitated by a staff person (Group Coordinator) and 5 trained volunteers (Group Facilitators). The advantage of having a facilitator to participant ratio of 1:2 allows for the constant support in the group and provides the attention that grieving kids need. At the same time that the kids are in session, there is a concurrent support group for the care-giving adults. This support group is facilitated by one of our staff social workers. The support groups provide an opportunity for kids to talk and play together. Activities are varied and the children and teens are given the opportunity to make their own choices. Talking Circle is where participants come together, with the group coordinator and group facilitators, sitting on large pillows, with various sizes of stuffed animals to hold and surround them. The children say their names and who has died or who was killed in their families. Some only say their own names. Saying the name of their mother, father or sibling who died may be too painful. Eventually, when they are able to and ready to, they will share. As 7 year old S. would tell us holding his ears, sitting in the lap of a giant teddy bear, “it’s just too hard to hear this.” Then, he too, talked about his mother and how she died from AIDS. He talked about how he still loves her and how much he loves his grandma. The Play Room is where children may be expressive with art and craft materials, games, play in the doll house, read stories together, put on dress up clothing in the pretend corner, “cook” in the kitchen. Some children may play out what has happened to their parent or sibling in the doll’s house or in the pretend corner. Children may choose to participate in a game of cards, chess or play Twister, laughing and falling on one another or play table tennis or knock hockey. Volcano Room is where kids can tumble on thick mats or punch at the punching bag. Kids may put on super-large boxing gloves and box with each other or create a game with the over-sized exercise ball. It is a chance to be very physical about one’s feelings and play. Children play out their feelings and emotions when they are ready to do so.  Seven  year old K began hitting the punching bag telling the other child who was playing with him that the punching bag was the cancer that killed his father. Eighteen months earlier, K’s father was diagnosed with brain cancer. K participated in his father’s at home hospice care for his father’s last two months. K was with his dad every day. He went to a cousin’s house for a play date weekend. His father died that Saturday.  K kept hitting the punching bag harder and harder and yelling: “I hate the word cancer. I hate what it did.”  The facilitator, with him, let the child “do his work.” After his last punch at the bag, K sat on the floor and cried. Then he stopped crying and joined in a game of Twister.  His group mate, T, put his hand on K’s shoulder and said, “ I know what you mean. Me, too.”