Common Bond Institute


How To Become Involved With Supporting the

Solidarity Coalition

For Healing and Resilience – Middle East

Opportunities for

Professional Volunteer and Internship/Field Placements

Invaluable professional and personal experience is available for those who wish to be part of a team creating an unprecedented Coalition of Disaster Health Care NGOs providing critical health care on the ground to victims of war and violence in the Middle East.


*
Involvement can be fully virtual or optionally in-person, and is typically custom-designed to match a volunteer’s interests, skills, experience, time, and schedule.

If you are looking for a way to contribute there are many options.

Opportunities Are Available For:

Professional Volunteering:
Volunteering offers meaningful professional work experience that can be documented for resumes, as well as provide unique opportunities to meet and work with experienced, leading edge professionals.

Internships & Field Placements:
Internships & field placements are available in related fields with the approval of a students university. In cooperation with professional member NGOs, placements are available in a variety of fields, including but not limited to mental health & medical health treatment & skills training, human services, sociology, policy & program development, resource development, organizational & community development, communications, IT & computer sciences, etc.


Our coordinators and staff make themselves fully available to support and guide all volunteers, and professional internship and field placement supervision is available to meet university requirements.

Available Task Areas – accomplished either virtually or in-person, include:

1) Skills Training: Mental Health & Psychosocial Skills, and Medical Treatment Skills

Includes professional and paraprofessional treatment skills with local service providers, as well as training to conduct self-help skills trainings with community members. 

2) Providing mental health or medical health treatment 
* This can be either via tele-health or on-site. 

3) Public Mental and Medical Health Education

4) Mapping the Service and Need landscape to create a Regional, Searchable Database of NGOs providing disaster health care services to victims of war and violence in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. 
Assisting with: 

a) Researching local and international NGOs to expand our list of direct services operating in the region, as well as local capacity building skills trainings.
b) Conducting a detailed online survey of these NGOs re: where located, what services, to who, where, & how to access. Also service gaps, staffing & skill gaps NGOs need help with, staffing and skill resources to potentially share, logistical challenges, lessons learned in addressing these challenges, etc.
c) Collating the survey data and converting it into a searchable and regularly updated database made up of two parts:

A database specifically for NGOs and Providers with functions for determining how to both make use of and support each others work for a more effective service overall
A database for the general population in this region made available to all to learn: what services are available, for what needs, by who, where, and how to access services.

5) Communications and Technical Systems
Assisting with:
Developing and operating secure Communication, IT, and AI functions in support of coalition tasks, operations, and activities. This included functions for all of the above aspects.

6) Resource Development for: coalition operations and management needs and in support of participating NGOs
Assisting with:

a) Researching grant opportunities and determining appropriate grantors, including foundations.

• Collecting data and completing proposal components for submission
• Using database systems in support of grant writing processes

b) Generating in-kind donations of materials, services, and other concrete support
c) Organizing crowd-fundraising strategies and programs.

7)  Research Projects:  
Assisting with: 
Research on topics directly related to the coalition, the needs it addresses, the services it provides, and results (peer reviewed research articles are eligible to be considered for publishing in the International Journal of Communal and Transgenerational Trauma)

8)  Professional Community Outreach and Networking:
Assisting with: Outreach, engagement, and networking with the global professional community to promote increased awareness, input, and support. 

9)  International Journal of Communal & Transgenerational Trauma:  (cttjournal.org) 
Tasks with this online, peer reviewed professional journal include:

a) Assisting as an Editorial assistant (details available at: cttjournal.org/staff-board/edit-assist/ )
b) Assisting with the technical aspects of managing and developing features and functions of an online journal 

Those interested in learning more about how to become involved in this landmark initiative can contact: 
       Steve Olweean (Director, Common Bond Institute)
       at:   SOlweean@aol.com  or  Cell/WhatsApp: 1-269-501-5453