Prior to offering her time at Chrysalis’ San Fernando Valley center as a volunteer, Maria had a career in the entertainment industry followed by years of volunteering with many nonprofit organizations, typically those that worked with children. She realized how much she enjoyed teaching, which led her to search the popular internet database Volunteer Match for an organization with which she could fulfill her passion. There, she found Chrysalis.
Maria began volunteering remotely earlier this year to continue to support clients taking part in our revamped virtual program. She did not know what to expect and was optimistic about what this next chapter of her Chrysalis journey would entail.
Since then, she has flourished at facilitating our job-readiness curriculum to clients. In both preparing individuals to find and keep jobs, and teaching our interview preparation class, she feels empowered by everyone with whom she comes in contact. Furthermore, Maria is an especially strong asset to the team, as she has delivered nearly all of her services in Spanish.
Maria transitioned seamlessly to providing services over the phone. Still, to become one of our many volunteer pioneers in a new virtual setting, it was a completely new experience for her. She shares, “In my lifetime, I never would have anticipated anything like this… Every single person is on a learning curve, and we probably still are.”
Now that she volunteers on a regular basis again, Maria looks forward to the days she gets to virtually meet with clients and help them prepare for interviews. “I genuinely look forward to my Thursdays, or whenever I have classes,” she says, “You can hear it in their voices – I get to hear their enthusiasm to get a job.”
In her time as a volunteer, and over the past few months amid the pandemic in particular, Maria has felt an immense sense of gratification from getting to speak to clients who have shown her their resiliency time and again. “[These clients] are going to do whatever they can to pick themselves up and go on.” For her, it is a gift to be able to bring out the confidence in those with whom she works and remind them that part of the job preparation and interview process is for them to decide if the job is a good fit and will make them happy.
One of her favorite memories as a volunteer was speaking to a client who had rung the Success Bell after securing employment. The client had faced many closed doors before arriving at Chrysalis, where doors to opportunity are open to all who are in search of employment. She observes that for him, and countless others with whom she has worked, Chrysalis was a crucial stepping stone on his pathway to self-sufficiency. “Chrysalis is a great organization. It’s absolutely phenomenal, and I feel very fortunate that they allow me to be a part of it.”
Though we look forward to the day when we can expand our team of volunteers, please note that we are currently accepting applications for the waitlist only. Click here to learn more.