Wed, Sept 26, we hosted a volunteer training workshop at the Richmond Food Bank. The workshop familiarized volunteers with the community we serve, with an emphasis on communications, conflict resolution, mental health and addictions.
It was an excellent session, featuring five different speakers from local Richmond addictions and mental health organizations.
The session was originally aimed at volunteers for the new drop-in centre at St Alban, but we decided the workshop would be extremely valuable to volunteers from organizations which target the same population as the drop-in centre. So, we opened up the invite to volunteers from the Food Bank, where each week over 500 families file through this same room to pick up their groceries, the weekly Community Meal, where over 150 folks are served dinner each week and the Extreme Weather Shelter at St Alban where dozens are given a warm place to sleep and hot meals each winter.
In all, over fifty volunteers filled the room and were treated to five excellent, heartfelt presentations from our guest speakers:
Barbara Bawlf - Vancouver Coastal Health/Richmond Mental Health Consumers and Friends
Rick Dubras - Richmond Addiction Services
Barbara Fee - Canadian Mental Health Association
Danny Taylor - Richmond Addiction Services
Randy Vance - Vancouver Coastal Health
The evening was filled with compassion and warmth, something we hope our guests will feel at the Community Meal.
