Washington Health System’s Junior Volunteer program offers a unique and rewarding volunteer opportunity for teens age 14-18 that are looking to either fulfill volunteer hours for special organizations or for those interested in exploring a potential career in medicine. The program typically has between 70 to 90 volunteer high school students, with each committing to no less than 50 hours a year, year-round.
Current student volunteers come from a number of school districts including Upper St. Clair, Peters Township, Trinity, Washington High, Avella, Bentworth, Central Catholic in Wheeling, WV, Central Catholic in Pittsburgh, Oakland Catholic, California, Ft. Cherry, Linsley, Bishop Canevin, McGuffey, Canon McMillian, Beth Center, Chartiers Houston and Lincoln Arts Park Performing. The largest group of volunteers comes from Peters, which is closely followed by Canon McMillian and Upper St. Clair.
The Junior Volunteers have a self-elected junior leadership board, comprised of their peers, who help set policies, initiate fundraisers and recruit others to join their ranks. This year’s Junior Leadership Board recently donated a check for $2,500 to the WHS Children’s Therapy Center for updated testing materials used to help identify children age 0-18 who may need Occupational Therapy, Speech Language Therapy and/or Physical Therapy.
These new evaluation tools will enable the WHS team to formulate and provide children and their families with an individualized treatment plan to help them work together on improving their functional skills in the home and in community environments. Every year, WHS therapists provide approximately 46,000 treatment sessions to hundreds of children within the Washington, PA region.
If you’d like to learn more about the WHS Junior Volunteer program in Washington, PA, please contact Rebecca Biddle at 724- 223-7114 or rbiddle@whs.org.