By Thea Jarvis

Kathleen Williams Pyrce has been named administrator of volunteer services for Crisis Pregnancy and Adoption Services, an arm of Catholic Social Services. Mrs. Pyrce will coordinate volunteers from parishes across the archdiocese who can assist the Crisis Pregnancy program in its pro-life outreach.

A member of Corpus Christi Church in Stone Mountain, she holds a graduate degree in pastoral studies from the Loyola Institute for Ministry Extension program. She describes her new position as “a wonderful opportunity” to work with people whose interest and energy can be directed toward helping women and couples in crisis pregnancy.

“We have needs as a program. Volunteers have needs as well,” she said. The best approach is to “match our needs and their needs, using their giftedness in the right way and finding a place for them.”

Mrs. Pyrce is currently meeting with people in their home parishes to flesh out the structure of the network.

“We have had a fantastic response from a lot of volunteers eager to go to work,” she said, but basic planning is critical to the success of the program, she believes.

Meetings in December 1991 and February of this year helped parish representatives identify ways their congregations can be supportive of crisis pregnancies.

About 100 volunteers and 21 parishes have expressed interest in a range of pro-life activities that include transportation, material assistance, host homes, birth coaching, tutoring, prenatal care, vocational training, counseling and staffing a telephone hotline.

Some parishes have targeted specific projects they can undertake: baby showers, sponsoring a woman for the length of her pregnancy, sewing layettes for newborns, maintaining a clothes closet for baby needs.

This month, St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Alpharetta held a parent-child game night. Admission to the event was a gift for clients of the Crisis Pregnancy program.

“People in parishes are very creative,” said Jean Reiss, program director for Crisis Pregnancy and Adoption Services. She added that grandmothers, younger women at home with their children and mothers of teens or college-aged children are among those who have volunteered.

Catholic Social Services undertook a restructuring of its Crisis Pregnancy program last year, when a decline in adoptions and income from fees provided by adopting parents became increasingly apparent. In August 1991, two salaried caseworkers were released from the CSS staff, and Ms. Reiss began working towards a parish-based volunteer network.

Increasing parish access points and people involved in pro-life outreach, Mrs. Pyrce indicated, will enable Crisis Pregnancy to more effectively meet the needs of the women and couples they serve.

“Our major goal is to provide service to as many pregnant women in need as we can by using as many volunteers” as become available, she said.

Volunteers are not expected to be experienced counselors, but will receive training where appropriate for the jobs they undertake, Mrs. Pyrce said. She is negotiating with The Link Counseling Center to provide a reflective listening workshop for those who will handle hotline calls.

“Training to be a compassionate listener means helping callers determine what their needs are and at the same time having those resources – counseling, prenatal care, transportation providers – at your fingertips,” she explained.

A general orientation for the network at large is expected to take place this spring.

Although hotline service awaits final planning and placement of volunteers, it will be a cornerstone of the new network. Host homes, already part of Crisis Pregnancy and Adoption Service, will continue to be offered when needed. With the parish network in place, the number of host homes is expected to expand.

Mrs. Pyrce hopes to network will give volunteers the opportunity to use personal gifts and life experience just as her new job has given her an outlet for what she sees as her own unique abilities.

Formerly administrative director of the Georgia Shakespeare Festival and former coordinator of the resource library for the archdiocesan Office of Religious Education, Mrs. Pyrce has also worked in a corporate environment as a manager for an international charge card company in Atlanta.

“I’m very flexible,” she said. “I have been in a lot of different environments, worked with different kinds of people. This is a great opportunity for me to use the planning and administrative skills I’ve developed over the years.”

A year from now, she wants to see a hotline “up and running,” with a strong resource manual for hotline volunteers. She expects a network newsletter to be published regularly and training to be readily available for volunteers. Additionally, she said, she would like to have job descriptions written for all volunteer jobs and have network subcommittees fully staffed.

For further information on the volunteer network, contact Crisis Pregnancy and Adoption Services at 881-6571, ext. 473.