November 2008 Newsletter

Does your ministry need a consultant?

Find Family Volunteering Opportunities!

TechMission's ChristianVolunteering.org recently partnered with SixSeeds to launch a new website portal devoted to family-friendly service opportunities.
Visitors can also find resources like videos, books, and helpful links to equip your family for volunteering.

• Search family-volunteering opportunities in your area

Find volunteers for your organization !

TechMission is excited to provide its Christian Volunteer Directory where organizations can hand pick, recruit, and directly contact volunteers.

You can search for volunteers based on various criteria such as:

• Location (city, state, country)
• Volunteer skills
• Virtual volunteering (where they can volunteer from home)
• Service area
• Availability
• Languages spoken

10 Things You Can Do to End Online Segregation

Click here to read more about some ways you can help end online segregation!

Upcoming Online Courses

• 301 History of Urban Misions: An introduction to the history of the urban mission movement. The course begins with the early efforts of evangelicals in the nineteenth century and concludes with an up-to-date look at urban missions today.
• 308 Food Services: An introduction to food service operations. Topics include nutrition and menu planning, principles of food procurement and purchase, safe food handling and preparation, systems of serving and food service equipment, sanitation and health standards, budgeting, and cost controls. Also includes a look at using volunteers and clients in a nonprofit organization’s operations.
• 309 Fund Raising Basics: Along with an introduction to the essential elements of fundraising, direct mail, capital campaigns, annual funds, etc., this course is intended to help the student to develop a Biblical perspective of development. This course counts toward credit as a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE Certification).
• 413 Drugs of Abuse: How to identify the most commonly abused drugs, recognize patterns of use and develop approaches for treatment. (This course serves as an overview of the chemicals that are commonly being abused in our current society. It will address the classes of drug and the effect of each class of drug. It will discuss the common methods of administration, the speed of transmission to the brain and the neurological impact on the brain. There will also be a brief look at the treatment continuum of care.)
• 416 Mental Illness and Addiction: An overview on Counseling the Mentally Ill Substance Abuser: clients who have both chemical dependency and mental health issues. Students will learn the most significant predictors of treatment success, how to provide an empathic and continuous treatment relationship, how to distinguish between the criteria of substance abuse vs. substance dependency and more. Students will also learn how to recognize the diagnostic features of the more common mental health disorders such as affective and anxiety disorders, but will also study psychotic, cognitive disorders, and many others. Finally, students will understand how to implement general treatment strategies and tactics when working with the dually diagnosed client as well as with families.

Social Justice Blogs

UrbanMinistry.org launched its Volunteer Channel blogger program where users can blog about different aspects of social justice. There are currently 29 blog channels and topics include:

• Ministry Management
• Christians in Technology
• Poverty and Homelessness
• Urban Evangelism and Discipleship

If you're interested in becoming a Volunteer Blogger...

Blogging on UrbanMinistry.org can enable you to gain exposure to our audience of over 100,000 visitors each month. Think of it like your own online newspaper that is devoted to Christian justice issues you feel most passionate about.

For more information or to apply, visit www.UrbanMinistry.org/blogger