VOLUNTEER!

Fletcher Place Ministries’ Volunteer Programs and Requirements Fletcher Place Ministries is a faith-based organization that has served the southeast side of Indianapolis for over 100 years. We provide programs that work toward long term solutions consisting of three areas of service: Emergency Aid, Youth/Adult Education and Additional Support Programs.

Emergency Aid Programs
meet the needs of families and of those who are homeless by providing food and clothing assistance.

The Food Programs
These programs include a food pantry that provides groceries for an average of 120 families per month. Tuesday and Thursday morning breakfast is served to an average of 160 people per meal and Monday and Wednesday afternoon dinners are served to an average of 125 people per meal. Volunteers must be able to lift up to twenty pounds and work during normal business hours.

Clothing Assistance
This program includes a thrift store for both family households and homeless individuals. Each month we serve an average of 480 households and 110 homeless individuals. The thrift store uses a free shopping card program that allows for limiting the amount of items one can receive each day to better regulate our supply of donated items with the demand of so many individuals. Volunteers must be able to lift up to twenty pounds and work during normal business hours. Volunteer groups for the thrift store can also help on Saturday projects with scheduled approval.

Adult Education Programs
meet the needs of individuals by providing knowledge and skills, which will help them to break the cycle of poverty in their lives and better manage their situations.

Survival Skills tm
This is a nationally recognized life skills program geared to working with the poor and those who for one reason or another find themselves struggling to make it on their own. The program is in workshop format with the understanding that everyone brings knowledge to the table. The workshops for the women’s program consist of Assertiveness (personal communication skills), Personal Health, Nutrition, Child Management, Money Management, Legal Rights, Self-Advocacy, Coping with Crisis, Community Resources, and Re-entry Employment. The men’s program is similar but with a few topics geared more toward male issues. Each workshop starts with a pre-test and ends with a post-test to ensure that the information being presented is being grasped by the student. Students are required to practice new skills during the week and submit practice project homework at each new workshop. Each workshop is three hours long and the students must attend for the entire three hours and be present for at least eight of the ten workshops to graduate from the program. Each series of workshops are taught once a week over a ten-week period with childcare and meals being provided for the participants. Class size average from 8 to 12 and many of the classes are attended by our food pantry clients and preschool parents. Volunteer Facilitators of these courses are fully trained and evaluated according to their class graduation rate, pre and post-test scores, and the homework completed by each student. When a facilitator in training successfully completes three series of workshops he/she becomes a Certified Facilitator.

Basic Computer Classes
These classes are open to graduates of the Survival Skills program teaching these students the initial skills of properly turning the computer on and off, proper typing methods, and utilizing the mouse effectively. As the students become familiar with the basics they learn to set up a personalized desktop, to create and use a spreadsheet program, work with word processing, saving to a CD and printing. Currently this program allows for familiarity with Windows XP. At the end of the class each student receives a certificate and skill test sheet verifying where their skill level is regarding the various subjects taught in the program. Volunteers must have a working knowledge of personal computers and be able to convey that knowledge effectively to others of various competency.

Youth Programs
These programs reach out to nearly 100 young children. Our programs include pre-school for children ages 3-5; We take this opportunity to also provide free books and reading times. We also have on site a children’s library which allows children to check out 2-3 books that do not have due dates so they can either keep them or return them as they choose. During the summer we offer a day camp for young children ages 4-7. Volunteers can help by reading stories to children, helping with craft activities, providing and maintaining toys and supplies, organizing the library, and just overall provide a positive and loving attitude. Volunteers working directly with the pre-school do go through a background check and are trained according to child protection guidelines.

Additional Support Programs
are programs provided to enhance the emergency aid and educational programs explained previously. These are programs are provided on an as needed or periodic basis through the year and included the following:

Lights, Camera, Learning
This is the program we are using in partnership with Indy Reads regarding our literacy initiative. This program was implemented in response to clients who wanted to take a Survival Skills course yet had very limited reading skills. This is a yearlong program, which has proven to be successful for people with multiple barriers to reading. Volunteers must go through training at Indy Reads.

Children’s Library
This is a volunteer run library for children in our service area. Many of the children in our service area do not own books. The library is well stocked with books for all ages of children from pre-school to gradeschool. Children are allowed to take 2-3 books each time they visit. If a child likes the book they are asked to keep it, however, if not then they are asked to return it at some point in time so that other children might use it. Volunteers are asked to help in supplying, categorizing, and sorting the books for the library.

Becky Day Resource Center
This resource center is located at the Adult Center for Education building. It provides a computer with Internet access, a self-help library, and a private telephone line to use in search for employment and other pertinent topics of research.

Professional Clothes Closet
It is designed to serve graduates of the Survival Skills by providing them with professional dress clothes to have for job interviews and for when they attend school. Volunteers may help by providing new or gently used professional dress clothing for both men and women.

Christmas Shopping Program
This program provides an in-house shopping venue for families in need of help at Christmas time. Parents in our service area come and shop for their children’s gifts that include both toys and clothing. All of the items in the shopping program are new and are donated to the center for this purpose. In addition to toys and clothes, the parents also receive food, a new blanket, treat filled stockings, and a special gift for themselves. We suggest that anyone interested in donating new items to this program begin as soon as January. The big sorting months for all donated items will be October and November when many volunteers will be needed, although we are trying to keep up with the sorting and inventory as items come in so day to day volunteers are needed throughout the year. The Final Set up for the Shopping program begins Thanksgiving weekend and the following week. The actual shopping time for families in need is the second week after Thanksgiving. The shopping runs from Monday –Saturday. After the end of the shopping week we still continue to provide items for families that for some reason were unable to attend the scheduled shopping time. This season of giving then culminates with a traditional Christmas Eve or Christmas day lunch for the homeless. This meal also includes wrapped gifts that consist of sweets, items to keep warm, and personal care items especially chosen for our homeless friends.