Washtenaw County’s Safe House Center holds a 40-hour orientation for incoming volunteers twice a year. The orientation spans over two weekends and equips newcomers with the emotional tools to help survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. The most recent orientation began on Sept. 16 and finished this past Sunday.
Corinne Galligan, a senior at Eastern Michigan University majoring in music education and minoring in psychology, was one of the incoming volunteers.
“Safe House has been very helpful to people I know,” Galligan said. “It’s been a positive experience and I wanted to be a part of it. I’m really excited to make a difference. I’m kind of terrified about how it’s going to go, but it’s a good kind of terrified. Kind of like taking that courage to stand up and do something.”
Kathy Winterhalter, volunteer and intern coordinator at Safe House, said student volunteers have always been vital to the functioning of the center.
“Student volunteers are absolutely essential to the work that we do,” Winterhalter said. “They are the bulk of our volunteers. They bring enthusiasm and energy. And, by being willing to go through the training, they prepare themselves to go out and work directly with survivors. We really couldn’t have served over 4,500 survivors without having our student volunteers.”
Carly Corpolongo-Davis, response team coordinator at Safe House Center, said specifically how critical student volunteers are to the programs that she runs.
“I run two response programs that are staffed 24 hours a day and seven days a week,” Corpolongo-Davis said. “We simply couldn’t do it without volunteers. Our staff could not work enough hours to cover those programs. We need the volunteers, and the majority of our volunteers, especially on our response teams, are university students from EMU, U of M and Washtenaw.
“A lot of students who come to us are going into social work, so they want experience relevant to their career. Not everybody is, but I think for students regardless they’re getting a lot of really good firsthand experience and learning a lot more about these issues that the community is facing. I know for a lot of people it’s been very directly related to their career goals and they’ve gained a lot of valuable experience in that regard.”
Sam Baetzel, a junior majoring in psychology, has been volunteering at Safe House since March. His work has been specifically with the programs Safe House runs that are aimed at the children living at the facility. He usually comes in several times a week to play with the children and provide them a sense of normalcy and stability. “It’s been one of the greatest learning opportunities I’ve ever had,” he said. “It’ll be great further down the road when I have kids of my own. I’ll say, ‘I’ve got the practice. I know how to handle the situation now.’ “
Lindsay Penar, a junior majoring in social work, said the time she’s spent volunteering for Safe House’s children’s program has been very educational for her.
“It’s given me a lot of insight into the way that children think,” she said. “It’s been an awesome experience to work with them and see how they grow. Some of them are really quiet in the beginning but become outgoing.”
Baetzel encourages other students to become involved with the center.
“The training is difficult, but once you get past all of that, it’s one of the most important experiences you could have,” he said.
Winterhalter expressed similar sentiments:
“I think that you will find as a volunteer that you will discover strengths and skills that you have that you didn’t even know you had. You’ll realize the satisfaction of really making a difference in people’s lives. And you’re going to meet amazing people, both fellow volunteers and the people you have the privilege of working with. You’re going to learn a lot about yourself and about them.
“Sometimes it’s easy to read the news and hear the statistics and feel overwhelmed, but this is an opportunity for you to actually step forward and make a difference, to really do something and there’s nothing more rewarding than that.”
Of course, one of the reasons Safe House sees so many student volunteers is because college campuses are immune neither to domestic violence nor sexual abuse. This is something the local community has recently been painfully reminded of after the string of assaults that took place on U of M’s campus this year.
“I’ve worked with students from all the universities and colleges in the county, both related to domestic violence and sexual assault,” Corpolongo-Davis said.
Winterhalter agreed and encouraged all student survivors to seek help, be it from Safe House or from campus institutions.
“Students are survivors,” she said. “Incidents do happen on campus. Each of the campuses reacts to them differently, but yes we are there to support them. And there are support services. Like at Eastern, the Women’s Resource Center is a wonderful option for survivors on campus.
“Safe House is here. Our services are free and confidential. They’re available 24 hours a day. No matter when you call, there will be someone who wants to listen to you, who will believe you and provide support to you.”
Corpolongo-Davis shared this encouragement.
“In any way that Safe House can be helpful, we are available,” she said. “We have a 24-hour helpline. All of our services are free and confidential. So even if you’re not sure if we can be helpful, if you wanted to call our helpline anonymously and just see if it’s something that ‘s helpful, that is completely an option.
“We are here to respect everybody’s decisions on what’s best for them and to help them stay as safe as possible. Whatever circumstances they’re in, whatever decisions they make, we’re here to not judge them, to never tell them that they deserved what happened to them in any way, to always believe them and to listen as much as possible.”
Winterhalter said, “Think of a large classroom or an auditorium. If you asked every fourth person to stand up, you’d realize that each one of them might be a survivor of sexual assault. It shows how huge the problem is in our lives. It’s not something that’s small that doesn’t impact us. It impacts us everywhere.”
To anyone who wishes to join the fight to end violence against women by volunteering at Safe House, Winterhalter encouraged all interested students to pursue orientation in the spring.
“Next volunteer training will be in Spring 2012. It’s never too early to submit your application. You can always email us or call us to find out if there are things going on.”
