National Emergency Child Care Network is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity in Durham, North Carolina that provides free child care services to families who are experiencing an crisis or disaster. Our mission is to ensure every family has equal opportunity to access and utilize free emergency child care during a crisis or disaster.
We are recruiting Durham-based SENIOR volunteers to help local families who are in crisis or disasters. We've already helped (3) families in Durham with over 20 hours of free child care, families that desperately needed help and support. NEXT STEP: Please let us know which training you want to attend. All trainings are listed on our website under Volunteer Now: https://emergencychildcare.org/contact-2/
In only 5 months since the program was activated during Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, 115 Emergency Child Care Volunteers across 2 states (North Carolina and California) have provided 713 hours and 74 days of free emergency child care to 82 children and 50 families (96% in North Carolina). We now have over 400 volunteers registered to become active volunteers. All volunteers undergo trauma-informed training in Psychological First Aid, extensive vetting, and nationwide background checks to ensure they are qualified and screened to care for children. On average, our volunteers are activated 1-3 times per week to help families requesting emergency child care in North Carolina and California.
Our families really need you!! Please join our amazing group of volunteers.
We will provide volunteers with trauma training for children in disasters. We also provide you with a backpack of fun toys, reading books, coloring books and puzzles to play with the children. This is one-on-one child care so volunteers will need to be 18 and older and have reliable transportation. Skilled and trained volunteers are dispatched immediately after the family calls the crisis line for emergency child care services.
Volunteer child care providers will meet families at a disaster shelter, at the family's home, or where the disaster has occurred to ensure the safety and well-being of the children. While children are safe with a child care provider, the family has the time to deal with the crisis. This support, in result, reduces high levels of stress for the family, as well as the potential for violence, abuse, or neglect to the child during a crisis.
Child care after a disaster is a critical part of response and recovery. Studies have shown that children who have experienced trauma from disasters need extra time with caregivers to ask questions to understand the crisis, to talk about their experience, be listened to, have their feelings accepted, provided with a space to cry and express feelings, have special one-on-one playtime and extra attention, do something relaxing or fun, and feel safe, cared for, and loved (Helping Children and Youth Cope in the Aftermath of Disasters, SAMHSA). WHY THIS IS SO IMPORTANT Disasters are upsetting experiences for everyone involved, but especially for children. Disasters can leave children feeling frightened, confused, and insecure. Children may respond to disaster by demonstrating fears, sadness, or behavioral problems. Younger children may return to earlier behavior patterns, such as bedwetting, sleep problems and separation anxiety. Older children may also display anger, aggression, school problems or withdrawal. With so many natural disasters occurring today, and now the increase in school shootings, children are seeing and experiencing things they should not have to - being evacuated, seeing injured or dying people or animals, losing their home and belongings, losing immediate access to basic needs, being injured themselves, and feeling that their own lives are threatened. Children and families also suffer from post-disaster ongoing stress which includes transitional housing, living in shelters or hotels, losing contact with their friends and neighbors, losing things that are important to them, parental job loss, and the financial costs of reestablishing their previous living conditions. Children’s ability to cope with disaster or emergencies is often tied to the way parents cope. And, when parents are overwhelmed, sad, depressed, emotional, stressed and panicked, the children will not have the emotional care they need to heal. We can help children and families better cope when we provide them with social support systems such as free immediate child care when they need it most. Our program also brings incredible value to the volunteer care givers.
Not yet enrolled in AmeriCorps RSVP? Before responding to this need, visit our website and enroll here!
Questions? If interested, Contact RSVP Program Manager Amanda Stoen at 919-321-6932 or by email at amanda@tnvlc.onmicrosoft.com.
