SCIENTOLOGY VOLUNTEER MINISTERS CORPS
25 YEARS OF SPIRITUAL FIRST AID

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When a man fainted in the Miami airport recently, a new graduate of the Scientology Volunteer Minister training program happened to be nearby waiting for a flight. “Instead of standing around, or walking on by, I knew what to do,” said the Scientologist. “In my training I learned the exact procedure for helping someone regain consciousness, and I jumped right in and did it.” The grateful passenger regained consciousness within seconds, profusely thanked the Volunteer Minister who had helped him and went on his way.

The Volunteer Minister had given the man an “assist”, a simple but powerful Scientology procedure easily learned and used that can bring relief from a wide range of difficulties. Assists—there are 130 different assists for different circumstances—are but one of many tools learned in the training program that has been qualifying Scientology Volunteer Ministers to go out and give “spiritual first aid” for the past 25 years.

Another Volunteer Minister, contacted through the nationwide 1-800-HELP-4YU hotline, answered the call from a distraught 19-year-old woman with a new baby, another on the way and an abusive husband with a drinking problem. The Volunteer Minister visited the family and started by educating the husband on the physical and spiritual effects of alcohol and giving him assists to help him withdraw. She then helped the couple learn and use other basic tools to address the conditions in their lives they wanted to improve—their communication with each other, care for their children, their standard of living. After only a few visits, the couple is now well on their way to turning around their own lives. The Volunteer Minister will work with them, completely free of charge, until they feel they can continue on their own.

On a broader scale, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have provided assistance in disasters over the years as well as on the home front. More than 800 Volunteer Ministers aided rescue workers at Ground Zero in New York, helping them deal with shock, exhaustion and pain and winning high praise from firemen, police, medical personnel and city officials. Volunteer Ministers were again on the front lines in December 2001 bringing the same assistance to some of the 20,000 fire fighters in Australia battling the brush fires raging around Sydney.

Before September 11, Volunteer Ministers were already known for their service at other disasters where help was needed—the Los Angeles civil disorder in 1992 and the Northridge earthquake in 1994; in 1995, earthquakes in Kobe, Japan; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Sakhalin Island in Russia. And in every year throughout the decade, they provided assistance at tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and wars throughout the world.

Since the first Volunteer Ministers went into action 25 years ago, in the program developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, thousands of Scientologists have undergone the rigorous training program to become certified Volunteer Ministers. When September 11 sounded the wakeup call for American volunteerism, more than 6,000 people enrolled in the training program in the months following the disaster. Today the program is stronger than ever, with more than 15,000 volunteers in 151 countries bringing help to tens of thousands in fulfillment of their credo: “Something CAN be done about it.”

To get out the message broadly that something CAN be done about it, more than 1,100 billboards have gone up in cities around the U.S., providing the hotline number (1-800-HELP-4YU) that connects trained volunteers with callers who want help. Coinciding with National Volunteer Week, thousands more messages have gone up in subways and buses in a dozen cities. The $1.1 million campaign is funded by donations from church members.

“Providing spiritual assistance has always been the role of religion,” said Church of Scientology International Vice President Janet Weiland. “Scientology Volunteer Ministers have helped tens of thousands of individuals and groups in their first 25 years and plan to expand that to millions in the next 25 years by teaching others to help others.”

The Scientology religion was founded by writer and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. The Church has grown to 9 million members in 151 countries. The Scientology religion holds that man is a spiritual being, that he is basically good, and is capable of spiritual betterment.

More information on the Volunteer Ministers program is available at www.volunteerministers.org or www.scientology.org. Assistance from a Volunteer Minister may be requested by calling 1-800-HELP-4-YU (1-800-435-7498).