iCarol Webinar: Developing Volunteer Crisis Worker Competencies
Our next webinar is coming up on Wednesday, March 7th at 1pm EST. Traditional competency frameworks are very much based on employment and paid career opportunities. But what if these frameworks could be applied to volunteer work that could help volunteer coordinators, managers, and others identify the best potential volunteers for a position?
That’s the topic that our presenters, Laura Mayer and Liz Barnes, will discuss in our webinar. They created a volunteer competency framework that helps identify and define a high performance volunteer, and refines the recruiting process to predict which candidates will perform successfully and stay with the agency for a long time. The framework helps take that “gut feeling” you may have about who will be a great volunteer during their interview, and put its into a measurable format.
About Our Presenters:
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Laura Mayer, Director, PRS CrisisLink
Ms. Mayer is the Program Director at PRS CrisisLink, a 24-hour crisis hotline, textline and telephone reassurance program serving northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. PRS CrisisLink is a program of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, Inc. and exists so that individuals living with mental illness, substance use disorders, mild intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and anyone who faces life crises can achieve safety, personal wellness, recovery and community integration. Ms. Mayer is a graduate of George Mason University’s Community and Global Health program and has brought cost effective and evidence-based suicide prevention programming to the local community. In 2014, Ms. Mayer partnered with the local public mental health system to provide crisis texting to the Fairfax County Public School System and the surrounding communities. Ms. Mayer is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Steering Committee, Suicide Prevention Alliance of Northern Virginia, the Fairfax County Youth Suicide Fatality Review Team and mental health promotion workgroups in several jurisdictions. Ms. Mayer is a certified Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Trainer, Suicide Survivor Support Group Facilitator and holds certifications in suicide risk assessment, domestic violence danger assessments and mental health first aid. She has been interviewed and featured by Comcast Newsmakers and NBC4’s Changing Minds Campaign.
Liz Barnes, Assistant Director Plans & Policy, Defense Suicide Prevention Office
Ms. Liz Barnes is the Assistant Director, Plans and Policy at the Department of Defense Suicide Prevention Office. Her portfolio responsibilities include developing suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention policies, guidance, and strategic planning, as well as the Department of Defense lead for the Veterans/Military Crisis Line and BeThere Peer Support and Outreach Call Center. Ms. Barnes served in the United States Army for nine years in the Ordnance Corps and Adjutant General Corps and had a variety of assignments at the installation level, National Guard Bureau, and Army Staff. Since 2009, Ms. Barnes has worked in the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in a variety of positions focusing on personnel policy, human resources, and congressional affairs. In 2012, Ms. Barnes was selected to assist in the integration efforts of the Department’s recommendations with the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission. Ms. Barnes is a Board member at Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (PRS) Inc. and a volunteer hotline and textline crisis worker and core trainer at Psychiatric PRS CrisisLink, in northern Virginia. Ms. Barnes established and co-leads a suicide bereavement support group that fills a gap in services for suicide loss survivors ages 18-24 years old in the Washington Metropolitan area. Ms. Barnes is also an Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) Trainer. Ms. Barnes holds a Bachelor’s Degree from McDaniel College in Sociology and a Master’s Degree from Georgetown University in Human Resources Management.
Tags: volunteer and staff management, Volunteer recruitment, volunteer retention, webinars
