Trauma Intervention Programs—Make a Big Difference in Your Community!

Have you wanted to be more involved in your community in a truly meaningful way? Trauma Intervention Program of Portland/Vancouver, Inc. (TIP) is an organization of specially trained citizen volunteers helping citizens in crisis. TIP is seeking volunteers who will be trained to assist police, fire and emergency medical crews at the scene of traumatic incidents and sudden loss.

If you are a caring person, you can be part of the all volunteer TIP crisis response team. As a TIP volunteer, you will receive the training needed to be an effective helper and to function in the emergency response system. TIP volunteers work with local emergency responders and can be called to assist in any traumatic situation.

TIP trains new volunteers once a year and the next training is November 2008. See the dates and times below for specifics. Volunteers will be trained to provide immediate emotional and practical support to victims and their families in crisis situations. For more information call 503-823-3937 or 971-563-9642 or email sharonlamvik@yahoo.com. There is a $50.00 registration fee. Upon completion of the academy, volunteers are asked to sign up for 3 on-call shifts per month and you must be able to attend the monthly continuing education meeting- always held on the first Tuesday of the month. Space is limited, so register at www.tipnw.org today!

Training begins November 13th. See this post for more details.

All sessions will be at: 4800 NE 122nd Avenue, Portland, OR 97230

Attendance at all training sessions is mandatory. This academy is completed during 8 classroom settings.

Crisis Team Response
Trained TIP volunteers will respond 24-hours a day, 7-days a week to offer immediate emotional and practical support to victims of any traumatic event at the request of emergency responders.

Events TIP responds to include:

• Death by natural causes, homicide, suicide, drowning, or any other means
• Fire, from small kitchen fires to fully-involved or fatal fires
• Crimes including rape, assault, robbery, and burglary
• Automobile accidents
• Missing persons cases
• Persons who are distraught and seeking immediate support
• Deaths or traumas involving school faculty, staff, or students
• Any incident where TIP's assistance is requested by emergency responders

Ways TIP volunteers can help people impacted by a traumatic event include:

• Comforting family and friends following the death of a loved one
• Comforting witnesses to traumatic events such as car crashes, suicides, homicides, and drowings
• Acting as a liaison between emergency responders and their people affected by a traumatic event
• Working with disoriented or lonely older persons
• Helping family members and friends of a recently-deceased person work with the funeral industry
• Protecting traumatized victims' right to privacy
• Making sure that in the middle of a chaotic situation, people affected by a traumatic event remember to take medications and to get adequate nutrition
• Waiting with family members in a hospital emergency room while their loved one is in the care of the hospital

Trauma Intervention Programs, Inc. (TIP) is a national voluntary nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that those who are emotionally traumatized in emergency situations receive the assistance they need. To accomplish that goal, TIP Inc. works closely with local communities to establish emergency services volunteer programs. In these programs, well-trained citizen volunteers are called to emergency scenes to assist family members, witnesses, and other bystanders who the emergency system often must leave behind.

Since 1985, TIP, Inc. has established emergency services programs in over 70 cities. In each of these programs, citizen volunteers are demonstrating that given the opportunity, they can play an important role in the emergency response system.