Craig Rennebohm's companionship trainings show how to connect with homeless individuals who are mentally ill. Rennebohm draws on Christian traditions and guides needy people toward sources of community assistance. But you don't have to have a spiritual orientation or special knowledge about available resources to use his suggestions about making meaningful contact with people on the streets.
He certainly helped me become more confident and skilled in connecting with an isolated person I have weekly coffee with. And his insight into the Good Samaritan story is a major reason why I started this diary series.
The Samaritan stopped to treat the injured man when other passersby just walked on. Yet, Rennebohm reminds us, he didn't have to take permanent responsibility for the wounded man, because near at hand was an inn where the man would be tended by someone else.
We, too, can more readily stop for a stranger needing companionship if we're confident that our gesture has the backing of a social system to help people truly in crisis. Without such a system, we're more likely to move on with our faces turned away, afraid to get involved or doubtful that we can make a difference.
What if we knew that hundreds, even thousands of our neighbors were each setting up a weekly coffee conversation with one person who could benefit from this kind of companionship? Our neighborhoods and city streets would surely change for the better. Except for really critical cases, "freestyle volunteer" companionship is a meaningful resource in the face of proliferating need, and a practical, satisfying way for separate individuals to build community in a fragmented world.
Mental Health Chaplain Craig Rennebohm of Seattle's Harborview Hospital holds companionship trainings across the U.S. - schedule at http://www.mentalhealthchaplain.org/.... Helpful guidance for freestyle volunteers can be found in several of his papers, at http://mentalhealthchaplain.org/....
Let's make <span style="font-weight:bold;">2009 the YEAR OF THE FREESTYLE VOLUNTEER</span>! Please write with your ideas, comments, and stories.
Please see the entire diary series on this and related topics. And if you'd rather email me than post a comment here at Kos, write to freestyle.volunteer@earthlink.net.