Being With©
What Volunteers Do
Being With© volunteers are not professional counselors, grief consultants, licensed therapists, or spiritual advisors. We do not provide service, perform errands or tasks, or provide respite care. We don't do patient assessment or assist other care personnel with their duties.
Being With© volunteers are ordinary people from every walk of life who want to spend a little bit of time, as our schedules allow, simply being present to weak, dependent, and vulnerable people who suffer in hospitals, nursing facilities, assisted-care residences, hospices, and homes, in order to bring about hope, love, wantedness, belonging, friendship, and mutual gratitude.
We spend our time quietly by the side of the suffering person, listening, smiling, singing, reading, laughing, watching television, listening to music, or just being quietly present. We sometimes hold a patient's hand, or caress someone's arm or forehead. Sometimes we cry. Always we love.
Being With© is not for everyone. It takes someone who understands that the greatest moments of human love usually occur when we stop trying so hard to "do for" one another, and simply "be with" each other.
Our volunteers recognize that human dignity does not come from what we are able to do; rather, it comes from our capacity to give and receive love in ways that are frequently subtle and unspoken.
Thus, whether with voice or with silence, our volunteers give (and receive) a sense of the intrinsic dignity, deep meaning, and immeasurable worth of human beings, regardless of their physical or mental state. Our visits do not always last long. Sometimes a volunteer has only a few minutes at the end of a busy day, once a week to make a visit. But even when short, these visits often lead to great peace, and even joy, in the midst of suffering.