
You don't always have to get paid to be abused! I signed up to volunteer as a group facilitator for teens in abusive relatioships. It was supposed to start at the beginning of autumn 2005.
As soon as I met the resident overlord I suspected incompetence and a very bad character, but I believed in this cause so I stayed on.
Indeed there was incomptence. It's now Feb.2006 with no start date in sight.
We were trained in December by a person from the CDC. We were put in groups of three to work on problems that might come up during a group we were leading. I was put in with the resident overlord and another social worker. The topic? What to do if you and a co-facilitator disagree during a group session.
As I'm not a social worker, nor am I officially a staff person I waited for the others to lay out their ideas first. Dead silence. I waited a little while longer, still no response. I considered a call for life support but decided to initiate the conversation instead. Big mistake.
I asked the other team members what they would do. I took notes on their answers and reconfirmed that my notes were what they wanted me to present to the whole group. My overlord was seething because I had taken the lead in the group.
After I finished laying out what each person had said the overlord stood up over me and pointed vigorously at my head. She practically screamed that everything I had just said was wrong. She then went on to explain the "correct" version,. whereupon she literally repeted what I had said almost word for word.
There was a stunned silence and some uncomfortable laughter. I was impressed! She'd really showed us what not to do when a disagreement arises.
After that I was just too busy to help out any more. Too bad, because I believe in this cause but I don't believe in volunteering to work with a bully!
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