Hospice of Santa Cruz County is a resource center that provides a multitude of services for the community. The main services that Hospice offers are Transitional and Palliative Care and Grief support groups for children and adults to afflicted members of the Santa Cruz Community. They send volunteers to Camp Erin, which is a weekend long camp for grieving kids and teens. Hospice of Santa Cruz County puts on community-oriented events to help with creating conversations around and promote learning about grief, death, serious illness, etc.. Workshops on Advance Directives, movie nights, Death Cafe, which is a discussion directed group that focuses on death and its aspects, are all opportunities that they offer as well. An exception highlight of Hospice of Santa Cruz County was their previous exhibition with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Spoken/Unspoken. The installation from last year centered around hospice patients telling intimate stories as they neared the end of their life.
There are various volunteer opportunities available through Hospice of Santa Cruz County, which includes the following roles: Volunteer Visitors, Grief Support Volunteers, Camp Erin Volunteers and The Friends of Hospice. Volunteer Visitors are tasked with visiting patients and families on hospice. They will run errands, offer emotional support and provide companionship to hospice families and patients. Grief Support Volunteers can work in either adult or youth grief support groups. Volunteers can help with the grieving process by listening, offering feedback and providing emotional, spiritual or compassionate support for participants. Some Grief Support Volunteers participate in the annual grief camp, Camp Erin. Camp Erin has volunteers participate in an annual weekend long camp by supporting children and teens who have experienced the death of a loved on. These volunteers are expected to be supportive staff and bereavement specialists to promote a supportive camp experience for the campers. The Friends of Hospice focus on putting on events to raise money for Hospice’s programs. Their events of Oktoberfest, Fairways for Kids, etc., have raised over $2.5 million dollars for Hospice of Santa Cruz County.
For further information on how to get involved, check out the following link:
https://www.hospicesantacruz.org/volunteer/
