Volunteering Improves Your Mental and Physical Health: Center Offers Training and Education to Current and New Volunteers
It turns out that the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law and Weight Watchers have more in common than you would think. Both are good organizations to improve one’s health. In an article appearing in the Journal of Legal Education a law prof stated that “a wide array of studies find that regular volunteering is correlated with both physical and mental health. Compared with the population generally, people who regularly assist others…have longer lives, less pain, stress and depression.”
This should be good news to the 300 plus lawyers, law students and others who give their time to the Center. In return for their service, the Center offers volunteers training and education. Recently, on April 26th, the Center hosted an all-day event for 60 new volunteers who figuratively lined up at the door in advance to attend the well-regarded and popular program and receive the Center’s book, California Family Law Basics. Taught by Center staff lawyers and experienced volunteers with a welcoming speech by family law judge Randall Pacheo, the goal of the session is to provide the fundamentals of family law to the audience through interactive sessions. The first training is now followed by a recently-instituted program of follow up classes enabling the novice volunteers to learn more in-depth about family law pleadings and procedures for which they receive continuing legal education (CLE) credit recognized by the State Bar of California.
Get Involved! Click here to find out how you can volunteer at the Center!