The Neighborhood Bridge Launches Its Advocate Training Program

The heart of The Neighborhood Bridge (TNB) will be our Advocate volunteer program, a vital initiative that will connect people in need with high-quality human services in our community. That’s why we were so excited to launch our Advocate volunteer program in October!

HOW DOES THE ADVOCATE PROGRAM WORK?
In the TNB Advocate program, people seeking services are called “Participants,” and the volunteers accompanying them are called “Advocates.” The goal of the Advocate is to help remove barriers that prevent Participants from accessing the services they need and the support they seek. An Advocate and a Participant work together as equals to solve problems the Participant is facing.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?
TNB’s leadership adopted this model after studying several accompanying organizations in the area. One of the most effective programs using this model is House of Hope, the social service arm of Soul City in the West Loop. Its director, Christi Chatman, LCSW, designed and implemented the Advocate/Participant model at House of Hope. TNB was fortunate to be able to hire Chatman as a consultant to train our leaders as Advocates and provide them with the tools they’ll need to train our new cohorts of Advocates.

Chatman designed a 3-session program to train nine TNB leaders as trainers, including Executive Director Prentice Butler; Board members Karron Hurks, Kimberly Walton, and Dan Doody; TNB’s Spiritual Director Kevin Morgan; Community Advisory Panel member Chris Thomas; TNB’s Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne Gallo; and volunteer leaders Sarah Finnegan and Joe Berkemeyer.

In October, Chatman led these future trainers through a two-hour introductory session called the Bridge Brunch, followed by two 2-hour evening sessions called Bridge Bearers. She also provided the group with two training manuals: one focused on becoming trainers and a second manual centered on training new Advocates.

Following the training, the leaders met twice to provide feedback to Executive Director Prentice Butler and Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne Gallo. Discussions included what worked and what could be customized for TNB’s needs. All nine leaders plan to serve as trainers, and seven also plan to serve as Advocates.

WHAT’S NEXT?
The next step is to have the newly trained leaders do a training session for a group of long-time TNB volunteers in early January. This group will serve as a beta group and provide feedback on how the training sessions can be refined for maximum effect.

HOW CAN OTHERS GET INVOLVED?
Looking ahead, TNB plans to hold training sessions in January, March, June, September, and December of 2025 for those interested in becoming an Advocate. We plan to train between 15-20 Advocates at each training session to achieve our goal of having 60-70 active Advocates by the end of 2025.

For more information about the volunteer Advocate program, check out our Advocate info handout here.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities at The Neighborhood Bridge or sign up to volunteer, go to our Volunteer page.