Dove, Inc.

Where has the summer gone?   Suddenly, it’s the end of August, students are headed back to school, and so am I.   My life is about to get very busy, because I spend much of the school year in high school and junior high classrooms, sharing information about relationships, Dove, and its services.   It’s my favorite time of year!   As Dove’s Youth Services Specialist, I work in the agency’s Domestic Violence Program, providing crisis and supportive services and advocacy for adult and child clients.   Each domestic violence staff member has an area of specialty and mine is providing teen dating abuse prevention education, advocacy, and support for teens and their families.   Research indicates that for 1 in 5 teen girls, the most memorable event of her high school years will be abuse by a dating partner.   Although boys suffer less physical abuse, both teen boys and girls endure emotional and psychological abuse from dating partners. There are a number of factors that put teens a

I grew up in the “Baby Boomer” generation.   In those days it was usually common practice for Grandma or Aunt Betty to live right down the street, or just across town, very close by.   If Mom and Dad were both away from home, which did not happen often,   one of the nearby relatives stepped in to fill their roles.   As society evolved, and more families were either single-parent or dual-worker households, or perhaps had just not lived up to their responsibilities, things began to change.   Perhaps your family had moved many miles away, or Grandma and Aunt Betty had jobs of their own outside of the house.   It became apparent that society had to change to fit the changed environment and provide for the latch-key kids, as they began to be called.   Schools began to offer programs before and after school;. Daycare facilities came on the scene….the popular mantra of the day was that “It takes a village to raise a child” and new and different components of that village came into existen

It is back to school time and the Beginning Awareness Basic Education Studies (BABES) Program is getting ready for another busy school year.   So what is the BABES Program?   The BABES Program is a program which combines puppets, stories and discussions designed to help school children develop positive living skills.   For the Kindergarten thru 2 nd grade the lessons include feelings and self-image, decision making and peer pressure, coping skills, alcohol and drug prevention, asking for help, and when you don’t know what to do.   For the 3 rd grade lessons are expanded upon what they learned in a K-2 nd grade program.   These lessons include, decision making and peer pressure about smoking, coping with divorce, dealing with feelings, bullying, and what to do when… Dedicated BABES Volunteers bring the six week prevention program to K-3 rd grade students in area schools.   Several of the BABES current volunteers have been facilitating in the classrooms for over 10 years

One of our many dear RSVP Volunteers shared below a little bit about volunteering with the program.  RSVP Volunteers go out into the community, sharing their time and talents.  If you are 55 plus and are looking for quality ways to spend your volunteer time, please send us an email dove@doveinc.or or check our our web site to find out more.  www.doveinc.org RSVP members in Macon and DeWitt County volunteered 120,953 hours in our 12/13 FY       "I started volunteering when I retired in 1988 from Federal Kemper Insurance Company. I have been at many different sights done all kinds of things and picking the hours that I could help.   I started at the Office of Aging at the Civic Center filling out various forms and doing any other office duties that needed to be done. I have been at the Girl  Scout Office, Gift Shop at Nursing  Home, visiting shut ins, cutting out coupons, and at many other places that needed a volunteer. Just doing  what needed to be done. I a

How many remember the days of not having to lock your car doors, or your house doors for fear of strangers walking in, let alone a burglar? How many remember that a new face in your neighborhood just meant there was a new neighbor or someone had lost their way looking for an address, not someone casing the neighborhood looking for a house where the family is not home or who has alarms and who does not? Or how many of you could sit on your front porch and enjoy the evening listening to the quiet of the neighborhood, instead have to listen to   the constant booming of a stereo and watching ‘supposedly’ covert drug deals? Most of these things are pretty much a reality now, and they can happen in the most upscale neighborhoods.    The months of July and August are vacation times and there are increased home invasion instances reported during these months.   There is an Annual crime prevention awareness program called National Night Out [NNO] and it is just that - a National Aware