New Member Orientation and New Member Screening are offered alternating months, on the second Friday of the month. Email Karen Landovitz klandovitz@yahoo.com for more info.
Membership:
People interested in becoming members of Identity House need to attend one of the orientation sessions which are offered throughout the year.
As a way of letting the community and prospective new members know who we are and what we do, Identity House hosts several Orientation Meetings each year. The idea is to give people a general sense of the organization, an idea of the culture, traditions and practices at Identity House. It helps those who have expressed an interest in joining understand whether they want to take the next step and undergo the screening process.
After an initial orientation, the screening process is the next step towards becoming a member of Identity House. In a screening session, a small group of prospective members meet with a sampling of current members who will serve as a screening committee. Ideally this group consists of a male peer, a female peer, a male therapist, and a female therapist. They try to get to know the prospective members—and vice versa.
Prospective members are asked to speak about themselves—their story, why they are interested in working at Identity House, what they want to do here, what other work they may be doing. How much time they have to commit. (It’s important for people to know that I House membership really requires a serious time commitment). These are all important questions for a prospective member to ask her/himself before going into the screening process.
It is strongly recommended to those who are interested in doing work as a group leader/facilitator at Identity House to attend at least one of our open groups (Walk In Come Out Groups) before the screening process. Identity House groups have a particular format that may be different from what prospective members are familiar with. It’s important for them to have a realistic view of what it means to be a facilitator at Identity House.
A screening committee explores the following characteristics in prospective peer counselors and facilitators:
- Empathy
- Ability to listen and hear what is being said
- Personal willingness to accept “helping” services
- Flexibility and open-mindedness
- Ability to share of themselves
- Experience of conflict, growth and change
- Awareness of issues of sexism and homophobia
- Awareness of issues of race and class
- Consciousness of themselves as gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender
Potential members are required to specify the type of work they are interested in. Currently, we have three categories of responsibility:
- walk-in couseling
- group facilitation
- administrative coordination
It is strongly recommended to those who are interested in doing work as a group leader/facilitator at Identity House to attend at least one of our open groups (Walk In Come Out Groups or T&L Groups) before the screening process.
All members of Identity House are expected to pay annual membership dues of $100. Dues are payable at the start of each calendar year—and the final date of payment is March 31st. Because Identity House is a non-profit organization, it depends on dues to operate as well as donations from its clients.
