* work of the volunteer sort

As my job search continues to venture forth through what seems like a dry and weary land I have also now begun several volunteer positions. One of them is with the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT). An international organization with its headquarters in St. Paul, MN which seeks to provide healing to refugees around the world, both by working directly with them and by supporting others who are doing this important work.

My tasks thus far have been varied, but mostly in the training side of things. Helping with the sort of things the organization just doesn’t have time for. Nice for me as they are well-defined with time to spend on each one. Nice for CVT as there are never enough people to do everything which needs doing. Thus far this work has included transcribing webinars, editing a newsletter, providing feedback on a training program, providing suggestions about how to go about doing site-visits and working to organize several hundred PowerPoints which have been developed and gathered over the years. I’m there twice a week with somewhat of an inside seat as to what is going on.

A second job is with what is now called “Alight,” up until recently “The American Refugee Committee.” This is also an international organization which works with refugees primarily in international settings in quite a few different countries. Here I’m just getting started so the task is a bit more mysterious still, but initially I’ll be working on an internal online training system they have which their employees around the world can benefit from.

The hope in both cases is to see if I can become more engaged with one or both organizations to the point of possibly doing some paid consulting for them. Of course that’s a big unknown, but in the mean time there are positive things I can be doing which I appreciate.