By:Carrie James
Coalition Against Domestic Violence offers Nassau County residents many opportunities to volunteer in ways that include clerical, helping to support victims of domestic violence, transportation and giving educational presentations. Joan Sculli, director of education and community services, right, and Marsha Sahmi, projects coordinator in charge of volunteer services, work closely to help bring in and train volunteers for the coalition.
Every 12 seconds, a woman in the United States is beaten.
In Nassau County, the Coalition Against Domestic Violence helps women, and men, who have fallen victim to physical or sexual assault at home. The group provides many services, including the Safe Home for Abused Families, group and individual counseling, community educational programs, legal services and crisis intervention hotlines.
But these are things the 25-year-old, non-profit group can provide only with the selflessness of volunteers who help with anything from clerical work to survivor advocacy in hospital emergency rooms.
The coalition is constantly looking for new volunteers. Its next volunteer orientation is at 11:30 a.m. July 11 at coalition headquarters in Hempstead.
"Funding is always tight, and over 87 percent of our budget goes directly to providing services to our clients," said Joan Sculli, director of education and community services. "There are so many things that couldn't exist here if it were not for the work of volunteers. For example, we do a great deal of outreach, and if not for the Speakers Bureau [run by educational program volunteers], we wouldn't be able to speak in the community or in training programs for professionals."
In all, the coalition offers eight types of volunteer opportunities, ranging from fundraising and office help to working with survivors in a supportive role, whether at the safe house, the courts or the emergency room, Sculli said.
Each volunteer area provides a vital service to the coalition, said Marsha Sahmi, projects coordinator in charge of volunteer services.
On the business and administration side, volunteers are needed to provide office assistance. They help answer phones, type, file and perform other clerical duties that keep the office running smoothly, Sculli said.
Another branch that volunteers can help with is funding, either from fundraising events or grant-writing.
"About a third of our funds do not come from the government, and there are a lot of things that we need discretionary funds for," Sculli said. "So, we have developed a fundraising group of volunteers who help us."
Through the years, the coalition developed Speakers Bureau, which they refer to as the educational arm to the cause. The volunteers who participate in public speaking give presentations in the community, including at schools and businesses.
"We run preventative programs in schools from kindergarten through college level," Sculli said. "In kindergarten we have a program called 'Hands are not for Hitting.'"
These presentations and programs educate the community about the complexities and destructive consequences of domestic violence and sexual assault. Like all of the other volunteer opportunities at the coalition, volunteers in Speakers Bureau go through intensive training, to assure effectiveness. Volunteers can either participate in evening presentations or classroom programs during the day.
The five remaining volunteer opportunities deal more closely with clients of the coalition. Here, volunteers work to provide some sort of support to victims and survivors of both domestic violence and sexual assault, Sculli said.
First, the center provides child care to clients who have no other safe place to leave their children and would otherwise miss out on receiving counseling.
"We require that children not be present when the client is in counseling or an interview," Sculli said.
The Coalition's Safe House for Abused Families, which is emergency housing, gives volunteers another means to support people in need. Volunteers engage children in play, help them with school work or serve as someone in whom clients can confide. Volunteers work day or evening hours.
"What they don't do is homemaking," Sculli said. "They interact in a way that supports the clients. They are house mothers of sorts."
Closely tied to the Safe House volunteers are those who provide transportation to clients to meet obligations. They also pick up and deliver donations to the Safe House. Such volunteers must have a good driving record and be willing to be on call.
For a number of years, the coalition has provided trained Family Court advocates each day from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., who provide information and assistance to adult victims of domestic violence.
"Some accompany the client into court," Sculli said. "They act as a referral service for people seeking orders of protection against a spouse or adult family member. We're there for all adult cases. Predominantly it's women, but 3 percent of the cases are men."
After 30 hours of training, volunteers can participate in the coalition's final advocacy program, Survivors Advocates for Emergency Rooms (SAFER). This program offers emotional support, companionship and information to survivors of rape and sexual assault when they are admitted to a hospital emergency room, Sculli said.
The coalition developed SAFER after July 1991, when the agency became the county's center for sexual assault cases. SAFER volunteers, like at the Safe House, are primarily women, Sculli said, because the coalition believes females provide the most comfortable atmosphere for victims.
"We have many well-trained people to deal with victims of sexual assault at the hospitals," Sculli said, meaning doctors and nurses, among others. "But our advocate is there solely for the purpose of assisting the victim and to make sure their rights aren't lost and to provide what they desire. These advocates have no allegiance to any other part of the system. They are just there for the victim."
The volunteers are on call two days or nights a month, Sculli said, and could be called to any hospital in Nassau County to help victims. Shelley Lotenberg, a spokesperson for Nassau University Medical Center, said the hospital welcomes and supports the volunteers during an emergency situation.
"We applaud the volunteers from the Coalition Against Domestic Violence for the great work they do for providing those victims who are our patients with housing [information] and counseling [assistance], thereby removing them from a dangerous environment," Lotenberg said.
The Coalition Against Domestic Violence invites anyone interested in volunteering to contact it at (516) 572-0700. Although volunteers are mostly female, men can play a pivotal role, too, Sculli said. The only requirement is that a volunteer be at least 21 years old.
"I think the big issue is to have people willing to make a commitment to their volunteer work," Sculli said.
Prospective volunteers are interviewed, during which they are evaluated, then are put through training, also which is evaluated.
Volunteers are trained for anywhere from 15 to 30 hours, longer for Speakers Bureau, to perform tasks for the coalition, Sculli said. They are trained by upper level coalition staff, for the most part, and in many cases have support from veteran volunteers as well.
"Volunteering here is really an opportunity for personal enhancement and skill development," Sculli said. "It's also an opportunity for many to give back to the community, to give back to the community that helped them to get back up."
