About our volunteers
Macdonald Center volunteers are college or university students and people of all ages from the community. During a ten- year period, more than 1,000 dedicated volunteers and students have served at the Macdonald Center. Volunteers and students are an essential part of our work. Daily we are learning about the realities, needs and gifts of people caught in poverty who are challenged by mental illness.
Volunteers visit in a number of single room occupancy hotels in teams of two. After their visits they debrief with a staff member about their personal experiences and how they may serve as advocates in the community. Reflection and advocacy are integral pieces of our volunteer program. We currently have visitors going to 18 neighborhood hotels. We also visit in our own Macdonald Residence.
Nursing students from the University of Portland, Clackamas Community College and Linfield-Good Samaritan do community health rotations, visiting hotels, gathering resource information, assessing the needs of the community, and providing mental health education in the hotel lobbies. Nurse practitioners, two from Oregon Health Sciences University and one from University of Portland, provide staff and student education, counseling for neighbors and residents, and on-going research. Novices from religious orders helping us including Jesuits, Holy Cross, and Franciscans. A seminarian from Mt. Angel Seminary provides nine months of ministry here as his field education requirement. Our community volunteers continue their faithful visiting. Some of the relationships they have built have lasted over ten years
It is imperative that our actions show that indeed there are no “insurmountable distances” among our neighbors and us. In fact, the distances are entirely surmountable. So much so that our relationships here in Old Town, though challenging at times, are defined by us as great gifts and bring great fulfillment and joy into our lives. Many volunteers consider the gifts service they bring are far outweighed by the gifts that are given to them by our Old Town neighbors. Our program could not exist without these dedicated teachers and our dedicated volunteers.
Volunteers: changing perception and lenses of learning - reflections by the Pastoral Coordinator and the Executive Director
