RAPE CRISIS

HOT LETTER

Training

Rape Crisis Center needs more people to provide better counseling services. We ask that anyone working with us attend six training sessions dealing with medical, legal, police procedures, and counseling techniques. Anyone who is interested in helping call 391-3912.

Self-Defense Workshop

There will be two all-day self-defense workshops sponsored by the Rape Crisis Center. The first one will be on Sunday, May 15, and the other will be on Saturday, June 4, at the Shaker Heights High School Gym, 9.4 p.m. Kathy Cowles, the instruct. or, who has a background in Kung Fu and T'ai Chi, will give a short lecture and will teach basic techniques of self-defense for women. The charge for the class is $20.00. Anyone interested in taking the class can call the Center for a registration form. This should be an exciting and educational way to spend the day!

New T-shirts

We will be silk-screening our new line of t-shirts very soon. The new ones will have a large replica of our logo in different colors on the front. The Hessler Street Fair is the weekend of May 21-22, and we will also be selling the shirts there. Anyone who can help either screening or selling please contact Jean Harrison or sign up in the hotline room. Volunteerism

The subject of women volunteers has become a very political issue. "American women give away nearly $14.2 billion worth of work every year to worthy causes (in addition to the more than $499 billion worth of free labor they do for their families annually). By 1980, women's volunteer work may be worth more than $18 billion." (MS, Feb. 1975) These figures are impressive and should raise some strong questions for women. For instance, one reason contributing to women's powerlessness is the lack of financial independence and political power. Women who volunteer are often doing difficult, stressful work, which would bring high pay to a man in a similar position.

The N.O.W. Task Force on Volunteerism released a statement in 1971, taking the position that women should not participate in service-oriented volunteering because:

1) such volunteering is believed to be an extension of unpaid housework and of women's traditional roles in the home (helper, mediator, supporter) which have been extended to the community;

2. such volunteering reinforces a woman's low self-image by offering work which, because it is unpaid, confers little status; and

3. volunteerism has been society's solution for those people for whom there is little real employment choice.

Essentially, N.O.W. believes volunteerism is a pathological result of the basic structural deficiencies in the economic and social systems. Therefore, to maintain support for such practice is, in essence, limiting the chances for structural change. The society will not seek other alternatives if volunteers are there to place band-aids on the open wounds.

The only volunteering accepted as being valuable by N.O.W. is political or change-oriented volunteering. Examples of this would be working for N.O.W., Sierra Club, N.A.A.C.P., or a political party.

It cannot be denied that women have been used unmercifully by society; our compassion and social consciousness have definitely been exploited. It also cannot be refuted that structural change is necessary to accomodate the human needs of our increasingly complex society. Nor would we reject the essential need for women to become econom. ically independent. And yet, should we as women

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deny what good we have already produced and continue to produce, because we are liberated from the male mentality of thinking only in terms of economics? Perhaps we could become instead leaders in raising men's consciousness to also seek new alternatives. The reality continues to be that it is highly unlikely the government would fund services which seek to challenge its very existence. And such services do not come only in forms of politically organized groups, but often become political because of the essence of their services. There are many examples of such threatening programs initiated in the 60's which lost their funding for this very reas. on. Change seldom comes from inside the system. Volunteering cannot only be viewed in terms of work that should be paid for and is not. People volunteer for reasons such as social status, social concern, religion, and training.

There are small groups of women who can afford to volunteer their services to "prestige organiza. tions" which aid the social mobility of their husbands and gain them social recognition. For this reason, it would appear necessary to make a dis tinction between such elite work and service-

oriented programs. These groups are removed from the world of pain and suffering and are less concerned with their service as an accomplishment. Rather, they are vehicles for recognition and often competitive in nature.

There are many difficulties which become apparent in any organization which includes the employment of unpaid workers. The term "volunteer" has traditionally implied something "less" than a paid employee. Somehow a volunteer's work, although necessary, is not thought to be as important. (Even if, as previously mentioned, the job is identical to salaried work.) It would appear then that the problem does not lie in the essence and value of volunteering but rather the lack of value allotted to it by society.

Another frequent difficulty is the lack of dependability which results from the conception of volun. teering as "free time" work. Since the service is unpaid, there is often a feeling that one does not need to have to account for absences or accept responsibility. The position of an unpaid worker is looked upon as having little influence and little credibility in the community. One woman was quoted in an article on volunteering as saying, "It's not the money that counts...It's that people treat you differently when you are paid. They listen to you and 'don't waste your time. For the first time in may life I feel adult, independent--like a fullfledged member of the human race. (Ms. Feb. 1975)

A fact which can account for frequent absences is

that those people who tend to involve themselves in volunteering are usually people who are involved in many other activities to which they are dedicated and responsible. The question of how much can be expected or demanded when there are so many other activities requiring attention by the workers is a reality that is often overlooked.

It would seem that all this implies a need for volunteer organizations to be highly sensitized to these factors and to increase communication among staff, both paid and unpaid, to these real problems. Working together can create new ideas and alternatives, as well as foster understanding, and thus lend the organization a better service. There needs to be a delicate balance of flexibility and dependability.

If you've been to the Center lately, you have seen the new hotline schedule. We know it is not complete. If you are not on it, or not on for the right time, please tell Colin or Carie. We have to make sure the line is always covered, and we need to know who is in when so we can help the people who ask for "the woman I talked to last night".

Then, once you have a schedule, try to keep on it. If a job, or classes, or your home situation make it hard to pick a certain time each week, tell Colin or Carie. We can work around things like that, but we have to know about them. If an emergency comes up, call in as far in advance as possible. We have had nights lately when everyone called in an hour or two before they were expected to say they wouldn't be in. That means someone who has been in all day stays in all evening, too. Hotline

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Sometimes you can go several weeks without getting a call for help, and that can make it seem less important to come in. Or sometimes people feel that since there are others who come in at the same time, they don't have to get in--which be. comes a problem when everyone decides that at the same time. Those are both ways of feeling that you are not so important. BUT YOU ARE! Every hotline advocate is very important for advocacy. for support to other advocates, and for education through information calls and help with mailings. Collating newsletters can seem trivial from our end, but they are important to the people who get them.

Nothing that we do is trivial. We must not see ourselves as doing charitable favors--which are nice but not necessary.

An Authentic Greek Taverna

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Imported Beer & Wines/Alse serving Ouzo and Metaxa

May. 1977/What She Wants/page 11