Children’s Disaster Services is offering a workshop to train volunteers in Beaufort on February 20 and 21, 2026. The workshop will be held at First Presbyterian Church of Beaufort, 410 Church St. Beaufort. Chris Appl-Walsh is the local coordinator and can be reached at (404) 989-5306.
While many disasters occur in the Southeast, most of the volunteers who serve with Children’s Disaster Services come from other areas of the country. One of the organizational goals is to train volunteers in areas closer to the needs.
Last February as Chris was volunteering in the shelters in Los Angeles after the disastrous fires there, her other team members were reporting the winter weather in their home towns. Even though those two weeks had the rare ice and snow here in Beaufort it sounded much more inviting than the Midwest and northeast. Why not offer training in Beautiful Beaufort? And now we are.
Children’s Disaster Services has been meeting the needs of children since 1980, working cooperatively with FEMA and the American Red Cross to provide care for children and families following disasters.
Children’s Disaster Services volunteers provide a calm, safe and reassuring presence in the midst of chaos that follows disaster by setting up and operating special centers for children in family assistance centers or shelters in disaster locations. Parents are able to apply for assistance and begin putting their lives back together, knowing their children are safe.
Information learned at the Volunteer Workshops can be beneficial to anyone working with children. The workshops train participants to understand and respond to children who have experienced a disaster. The training is designed for people who have a heart and passion for children and will help participants recognize and understand the fears and other emotions children experience during and following a disaster. Participants also learn how child-led play and various art media can start the healing process in children. Participants will experience a simulated shelter, sleeping on cots and eating simple meals.
Once the training is completed, participants have the opportunity to become a certified Children’s Disaster Services volunteer by providing two personal references and completion of background checks.
Although many volunteers are motivated by faith, Children’s Disaster Services Volunteer Workshops are open to anyone over 18 years of age.
Cost for attending the workshop is $55 for early registration, or $65 for registration made less than three weeks before the workshop begins.
The Children’s Disaster Services office may be contacted at cds@brethren.org or 800-451-4407 ext. 4. Go to childrensdisasterservices.org for more information about the program and to register for the upcoming workshop.
Children’s Disaster Services is part of Brethren Disaster Ministries of the Church of the Brethren, a Christian denomination committed to living out its faith in community. It had recorded about 87,000 members in 2021, across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Nigeria, South Sudan, Spain, Venezuela, and Uganda.
