Center for Civil Society International (ccsi@u.washington.edu)
Wed, 11 Oct 1995 21:42:33 -0700 (PDT)
Sender: mac@MAINE.maine.edu (Dennis McConnell - UMaine, U.S.A.)
Subject: Lithuanian Organization Requests Volunteers
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.
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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 . . . 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 Centras"
(DPJC), in English, Spiritual Guidance Center for Youth.
We are a nonprofit, social service organisation dependent 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" families) in 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 beginning
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 application 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: JDPC@JDPC.VILTIS.LCN.LT
Thanks for your time and help!
Sincerely,
Richard Liskauskas
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