M.O.P.S.

I volunteered at a Baptist Church in Mattoon. The program I volunteered for was M.O.P.S. Moppets Childcare Program. By volunteering at M.O.P.S., it clearly relates to families but not only families… disadvantage families. Teenage mothers who are financial struggling and emotionally struggling can attend educationals about parenting and other important life skills. Some children that we worked with had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, ADHD, and other psychological disorders. Learning about family resource management as helped me understand why it is important for the teenage mothers that participate in the M.O.P.S. program because they are likely to find multiple resources to help their families. Working with other professionals was a great experience! I enjoyed getting to see what a difference these women make to help families who are in need. A lot of the women say they don’t do very much but after I left I thought to myself, how could they say that. They give up so much of their time to help families that they may not necessarily know very well. These women dedicate their time to provide these mothers with proper education and resources for their families. There are many important factors that also go into M.O.P.S. so they can maintain their program for example, like attendance of the mothers and children, different guest speakers, volunteers, cooks and the church. If these factors were no longer existing then the program would be gone. These ladies work so hard to keep it alive. M.O.P.S. is already known throughout the community, teenagers and mothers just need to take advantage of it. M.O.P.S. is such a beneficial program if you need the education and the resources for your families. It has just a positive effect on the community more people should choose to attend. But not only just attend but also to help volunteer, they are always looking for people to help and they always want new ideas about education for the children and the program as a whole. I love M.O.P.S. I love getting to see the children and getting to participate in activities with them. Its fun to watch them learn and become creativity. I have to do volunteer work for my sorority but doing something different for a change was eye opening. One of my life goals has always been to make a difference and even though I just participated in the M.O.P.S. program. I could have made some kids day. Sometimes when I am so busy I forget about my life goal but after volunteering I feel like it has been my main focus in my life for the last few weeks. I hope to one day fulfill my life goal.

-Kaitlin Van Scooter