Message-ID: <MAC.951010054311@maine.maine.EDU> Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 05:43:11 EDT From: "Dennis McConnell - UMaine, U.S.A." <mailto:mac@MAINE.MAINE.EDU> Subject: Lithuanian Organization Requests Volunteers To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
I have received the attached announcement from a Lithuanian
organization, and am forwarding it essentially as received. I am
not familiar with the organization, but perhaps some members of
the list will be sufficiently interested to request additional
information from the e-mail address included in the call for
assistance.
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Lithuanian Organization Requests Volunteers
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Greetings to members of the list. I would like to introduce our
organization in Lithuania to members of the list, and to ask for
volunteers to assist us in our efforts.
Our centre opened on March 19, 1995, with the implementing finan-
cial assistance of External Affairs CANADA - Baltic Initiatives
Program and the Canadian Lithuania Catholic Centre. However,
funding has since ceased. We began as a Social Services Center
for Youth and Women, but because of translation problems with
that name, we are now known as "Dvasines Pagalbos Jaunimui Cen-
tras" (DPJC) - Spiritual Guidance Center for Youth.
We are a nonprofit, social service organisation depending on
finding charitable organizations to help finance our work and to
sustain our activities in the future. We started with individual
counseling (no charge), which was to lead to peer-support group
therapy. The current needs of the local area called for more
attention to be focused on children from "dysfunctional" families
(mainly due to alcoholism) and we successfully managed a Summer
Day Camp/Activity Center where a total of 145 children (half from
dysfunctional families and the other half from "normal") from the
local region participated. About 60 volunteers served as group
leaders and activity specialists - university students (who
lacked practical application skills), high school students from
the local church (who lacked skills that require theoretical
knowledge, but had fantastic inter-personal skills), teachers,
artists and others. The overall results were very positive, but
we feel we failed in preparing the leaders and specialists to
work with these kids.
DPJC is now redirecting its focus to train youth in working with
children from dysfunctional families, while at the same time
helping them solve their own problems through therapy sessions.
Therefore, DPJC is looking for qualified psychologists, social
workers, counselors and/or other specialists who could conduct
intensive training sessions to teach others how to work with
children from dysfunctional families. Our goal is to run Summer
Activity Centers throughout the whole city in 1996, and to con-
tinue follow-up centers during the school year. Our recruitment
of volunteer leaders will begin in December, with training begin-
ning shortly thereafter.
We would be grateful for the services of volunteers, who would
also be able to finance their own travel. Currently, most of our
attempts for fund raising at the local level have failed due to
very hard economical times in Lithuania, and raising funds from
abroad requires a long time. We continue to look for possible
charitable organizations, filling in copious amounts of applica-
tion forms, but thus far few positive results - but then again,
no negative results.
If you need more information or are able to meet some of our
needs, please contact us by writing, telephone, fax, or even
better, e-mail:
Richard Liskauskas
Dvasines Pagalbos Jaunimui Centras
27 Smilteles
5815 Klaipeda
LITHUANIA
Tel: (370-6) 360-411
Fax: (370-6) 360-412
E-mail: mailto:JDPC@JDPC.VILTIS.LCN.LT
Thanks for your time and help!
Sincerely,
Richard Liskauskas
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