No one fights alone. It’s a phrase often used for cancer awareness campaigns. It pulls at your heart to assure you that it’s not a solo journey. A similar phrase can be heard at Pro Deo. No one should face the teen years alone. Teens often lament to parents, “No one understands me!” But solitude can be a place for teens to withdraw from the social world and reflect. All that heavy lifting to learn to self-reflect can be healthy as long as the teens feel heard and accepted when they do socialize.
At our core, Pro Deo staff and volunteers want to walk alongside the teens to help them socialize and feel accepted. Read on to see how volunteers shine at Pro Deo to help teenagers fit in…
Afterschool programs, like Pro Deo, have the ability to help address some of the inequities facing families by prioritizing inclusion and meeting the need for a safe, nurturing place for older youth to thrive. It takes a valuable resource to do this however. That resource is the staff and the volunteers. Our staff and volunteers truly like teenagers, and they don’t mind when necessary to redirect behaviors in a positive manner.
Let’s take the volunteer drivers at Pro Deo as an example. Susie and Dymon Wood, Cliff Horton, Curtis Edwards, Charlotte Yates, Billie Jo Wolfe, David Fritz and Bob Paradise. These volunteers may only work 1 or 2 hours a week driving a van to pick up teens at the schools and bring them to Pro Deo activities or tutoring. But please know that their role as drivers is truly about that genuine smile and kind gesture that is a part of the way they do their job as driver.
One of the drivers relayed a story of how one of the teens she began to know more personally would open up on the short drive from LSHS to Pro Deo. The teen shared some of the issues they are facing living with a grandmother who is raising them, but also the struggle of losing their mother at an early age. The trauma that teenagers face is real. It pulls at the heartstrings of even our volunteers. It is this connection that keeps them volunteering and serving at Pro Deo. It is this connection that means together we can do more.
Volunteers shine at Pro Deo. Interested in volunteering? Visit our website and click on community.