Volunteering

Volunteerism/Community Service: Centre County Women's Resource Center, State College, PA.
March 1993-May 1995.
Achievements: I was certified as a hotline counselor after completing 70 hours of intensive training. After certification, I provided hotline counseling for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and assisted with office staffing, administrative duties, and developed volunteer newsletters.

Child Advocacy. April 1993-May 1995.
Achievements: I co-facilitated the drop-in weekly children’s group for more than two years, providing age-appropriate education on domestic violence; including safety planning, coping skills, processing feelings, non-competitive games, and interpersonal skills (sharing, communication, problem-solving and nonviolent conflict resolution). I also assisted the group facilitator with curriculum development to meet the needs of specific shelter child populations. In addition to my experience in group, I provided individual counseling with children and mothers in shelter as needed.

Centre County Children & Youth Services, Bellefonte, PA
Foster Parent. 1995-2000
My husband and I volunteered as foster parents for adolescents. We were required to attend initial and ongoing training on fostering and family reconciliation, as well as providing short- and long-term care for 4 teenagers that resided with us during this period.

Promotion of Mother’s Milk, Inc., New York City, NY. Secretary, Board of Directors/Chairman, Web Site Committee, Membership Committee, Newsletter Committee. May 1997-May 1998
Achievements: I was part of a team of women who began this non-profit organization to promote breastfeeding through media watch and activist letter writing. I organized and produced the ProMoM website at http://www.promom.org, as well as increased our online membership to over 300 members within nine months. I also planned, wrote, and organized our premier newsletter. As Secretary, I kept meeting minutes, planned agendas, and wrote membership updates.

Executive Director, Board of Directors. May 1998-December 2001
Achievements: I created an Executive Committee to oversee projects and manage volunteers. I interviewed and trained administrative staff, website programmers, and volunteers for various committees. I also managed the Professional Advisory Board and liaisoned with them to achieve correct medical information about breastfeeding in our professional correspondence and on our website.

La Leche League of State College/Bellefonte, State College, PA
Librarian. 1996-1998
I managed a library of approximately 100 books, tracking which books were lent out. I also created wish-lists of what books the group wanted to purchase, and tracked funds for purchasing those books. I brought the books to each monthly meeting, stored them at my home, and transported books to and from borrowers.

Promotions. 1997-1999
Sent out press releases and meeting dates to doctor offices, newspapers, and hospital staff on a monthly and quarterly basis.

Membership Coordinator. 1998-2001
I tracked all paid memberships in the group, sent out annual reminders, and sent out notices to our mailing list as needed.

Moms Online, Oxygen Media, Inc., New York, NY
Chat Host. 1997-2000
I hosted chats on breastfeeding, Teen Moms, Foster Parenting, Sexual Education, Positive Discipline, Ask the Pediatrician, Getting Organized and Baby Signs. I volunteered approximately 4 hours per week until I was hired as a freelance writer, and subsequently became employed by Oxygen Media, Inc. (owner of Moms Online) as the Associate Community Producer for chat.

Rochester Area Homeschooling Association, Rochester, NY
Newsletter Editor. July 2007 to present
I collate all information and design a monthly newsletter for distribution to about 200 homeschooling families in the Greater Rochester area.