Paige Lindgren

1.         I volunteered my time at Northwoods Community Church in Peoria, Illinois.

2.         I volunteered three different times and provided free childcare for children for about an hour and half minutes while parents attended church services. This reflected some of the concepts that we learned about in class. I had all sorts of different children there from different backgrounds and cultures. It was like I already stated a volunteer basis so it was a free service for parents to bring their children for an hour and a half. It gives them a little break and also gave them the peace of mind that they don’t have to look for a babysitter and then pay someone to watch their children. It was neat to see how all the different children interacting with one another. At their young age a lot of the prejudice and preconceived notions were not in place yet.

3.         There were other volunteers there as well. We all talked a little beforehand but didn’t have much time throughout the night to really talk and get to know each other. If I think I were to go back more often I would maybe get to know them all better and then be able to network more. Another problem with getting to know them all was that the other people that volunteered each time were all different so it was hard to get to know them all very well. But they also said that they were in a rotation so if you were on the same weekends all the time then you would be consistently with the same people thus making it easier to get to know the other volunteers.

4.         Providing childcare for free for parents attending church services has a bug impact on the community. If there wasn’t childcare provided then the parents would have to do one of two things. Either they would have to take the children with them into the church service and that always is a problem. A child can only be so still and so quiet for so long. So providing this service to the families gives them a chance to be a grown up and relax while they know their child is having a great time interacting with children their age.  The other option they have is to find a babysitter that they would have to pay more than likely. Some of the families that were there could barely make ends meet. There is no way they would have been able to afford a babysitter once or twice a week.

5.         I really enjoyed my time there getting to know the children and playing with them in a child friendly environment. I would definitely do it again. Because it is volunteer based sometimes they have trouble finding people to fill the slots that are available leaving them short-handed and sometimes having to turn children away. They hate to turn people away but it can be a fire hazard and dangerous for the children to be outnumbered in a ratio.