Emergency Child Care Volunteers for Families in Disasters (Henderson)

We are currently responding to North Carolina's Hurricane Helene's long-term recovery efforts, and the LA Fires in California.

We are recruiting volunteers from North Carolina and Los Angeles to respond to families in crisis.

National Emergency Child Care Network's crisis intervention and disaster assistance is free for any family in crisis. We will provide volunteers with trauma training for children in disasters. We also provide you with a backpack of fun toys, reading books, coloring books and puzzles to play with the children. This is one-on-one child care so volunteers will need to be 18 and older and have reliable transportation. Skilled and trained volunteers are dispatched immediately after the family calls the crisis line for emergency child care services. Volunteer child care providers will meet families at a disaster shelter, at the family's home, or where the disaster has occurred to ensure the safety and well-being of the children. While children are safe with a child care provider, the family has the time to deal with the crisis. This support, in result, reduces high levels of stress for the family, as well as the potential for violence, abuse, or neglect to the child during a crisis.

We currently have over 400 volunteers registered. 150 volunteers have been trained and vetted and are actively deploying to help families in the State of North Carolina and Los Angeles, CA.

Since October 2024, we have helped 60 families and 100 children with over 2,000 hours of free child care. And, in many ways, we are rescuing moms every day from burn-out, mental and emotional exhaustion, and stress!

Our volunteers come to us from very diverse backgrounds, such as nurses, college students, retired grandparents, social workers, therapists, teachers, and many moms. Please reach out soon as the need is so great! Families need you! :-)

Child care after a disaster is a critical part of response and recovery. Studies have shown that children who have experienced trauma from disasters need extra time with caregivers to ask questions to understand the crisis, to talk about their experience, be listened to, have their feelings accepted, provided with a space to cry and express feelings, have special one-on-one playtime and extra attention, do something relaxing or fun, and feel safe, cared for, and loved (Helping Children and Youth Cope in the Aftermath of Disasters, SAMHSA).

WHY THIS IS SO IMPORTANT Disasters are upsetting experiences for everyone involved, but especially for children. Disasters can leave children feeling frightened, confused, and insecure. Children may respond to disaster by demonstrating fears, sadness, or behavioral problems. Younger children may return to earlier behavior patterns, such as bedwetting, sleep problems and separation anxiety. Older children may also display anger, aggression, school problems or withdrawal. With so many natural disasters occurring today, and now the increase in school shootings, children are seeing and experiencing things they should not have to - being evacuated, seeing injured or dying people or animals, losing their home and belongings, losing immediate access to basic needs, being injured themselves, and feeling that their own lives are threatened.

Children and families also suffer from post-disaster ongoing stress which includes transitional housing, living in shelters or hotels, losing contact with their friends and neighbors, losing things that are important to them, parental job loss, and the financial costs of reestablishing their previous living conditions.

Children’s ability to cope with disaster or emergencies is often tied to the way parents cope. And, when parents are overwhelmed, sad, depressed, emotional, stressed and panicked, the children will not have the emotional care they need to heal. We can help children and families better cope when we provide them with social support systems such as free immediate child care when they need it most. Our program also brings incredible value to the volunteer care givers.

Watch our video to learn more: Emergency Child Care Volunteers