Children's Disaster Services Training Workshops

Children’s Disaster Services Training Workshops

Since 1980, Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) has been meeting the needs of children by setting up child care centers in shelters and disaster assistance centers across the nation. Specially trained to respond to traumatized children, volunteers provide a calm, safe, and reassuring presence in the midst of the chaos created by natural and human-caused disasters.

The CDS 27-hour overnight workshops provide required training for volunteers who wish to serve in the program. The training is an overnight experience, simulating a shelter situation, and includes an overview of CDS’s work; understanding phases of disaster and how CDS fits in; working with disaster partners, children and family needs following disaster; supporting resilience in children; setting up a children’s center with a Kit of Comfort; ethical guidelines; and the certification process.

Anyone 18 or over is welcome to attend these two-day workshops to become a certified CDS caregiver. References and background checks (done by CDS) are also required for certification.

Disciples Home Missions (DHM), Week of Compassion, and the National Benevolent Association (NBA) of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have collaborated with the Church of the Brethren Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) to create a position and initiative that will meet the needs of children affected by disaster in the United States. Read more >>