Turning A Story Into A Mission

By Teddy Hennes, VIP Fellow at Big Brother Big Sisters of Orange County and Maria Lemus, VIP Leader at OneOC

With volunteer, training, consulting and business services, we help Orange County’s nonprofits become as effective and efficient as they are passionate about their missions.

OneOC’s mission is accelerating nonprofit success.  Our services are fully integrated, and strengthened through partnership with other local service providers. Together, we work to accelerate the success of Orange County nonprofits, enabling them to reach their full potential.  OneOC’s nonprofit partner, Big Brother Big Sisters of Orange County, currently hosts AmeriCorps VIP Fellow, Teddy Hennes as their Community Outreach Coordinator. Here, Teddy shares the impact that a story can make for a nonprofit’s mission:

“Stories are transcendent in their ability to share experiences and provide relatable identities.  We see throughout our daily lives how the act of storytelling supersedes cultures and regions as the primary way to connect us as human beings.  The people we may never meet or speak with understand us through the stories we share and the stories that are shared about us.  As such, there is no greater tool in a recruiter's possession than the expression of his or her organization's volunteer stories.  

At Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County, we feature the stories of our volunteer "Bigs" and mentee "Littles" to motivate the thousands of potential Bigs in our county to become actual Bigs who will create new experiences with their Littles that will be shared with our community and beyond.  That is not to say that hard numbers are unimportant from a recruitment standpoint--they are--but many individuals are not sparked because there are over 125,000 single-parent families in the area who could use our service; they are driven by the tangible impact that our Big of the Year, Richard, has had on Julio and the bond of friendship that has developed throughout their decade-long match.  It is Richard and Julio's story that connects with people in a much more profound way than statistics could solely achieve. 

Every organization has a story to tell about its volunteers, and every volunteer is a microcosm of that story.  In many of your nonprofits, these people are the difference between upholding your mission and not, so engage your potential volunteers with those relatable experiences that inspired the volunteers that came before them.”

Volunteer Management

 by Alex Drey-Mulari, AmeriCorps VIP Fellow at THINK Together in Ontario, CA

HandsOn Inland Empire (HOIE) is the volunteer department at Inland Empire United Way. In conjunction with hosting volunteers at the United Way, HOIE manages a website that allows volunteers and non-profits in the area to come to one place to connect. The department also organizes two large-scale school makeovers a year, manages corporate volunteer groups, and trains community members to become Volunteer Leaders. Through the department’s combined knowledge of volunteer programs and management, they are able to successfully support 7 AmeriCorps VIP Fellows. Alex Drey-Mulari is one of the Fellows currently hosted by HOIE. Alex works at THINK Together as a volunteer coordinator and he wrote the following from his experience throughout the year.

Volunteer Management is a huge umbrella term, and there are certainly many ways to approach it. Here at THINK Together, an academic support program in Southern California, we get to oversee all aspects of volunteer management. Over my term of service I had the wonderful opportunity to develop and strengthen many skills related to volunteerism. Here are some of my personal experiences with coordinating volunteers, and I hope that you can gain some insight into what it takes to work with volunteers.

First, always be present in your job, by being energetic and engaged. This does not mean that you need to a social butterfly if you are not that type of person. You should always look happy while doing your job, especially when interacting with current or potential volunteers. Always remember that volunteers are giving their precious time, and they want to feel excited about what they are doing. Your position is key to taking the volunteer’s desire to serve, and making it as enjoyable as possible. Also being energetic is more fun anyway.

Next, I would suggest getting to know your volunteers. This could be in the form of a volunteer interview, included in their volunteer application, or even just asking them questions. Volunteers serve for a myriad of reasons, and it is important to understand why each individual is volunteering. If they want to spend time tutoring children, then do not assign them to spreadsheets. Also, find out what kind of recognition the volunteers like. If they want a standing ovation in front of everyone that’s great, but maybe a hand-made thank you card is more their style. Taking that extra time to be on a first name basis with all of your volunteers really helps keep volunteers around, and again the experience is more fun this way.

The last skill I think that is essential to effective volunteer management, is scheduling of time. Many a time during my service, even today as I am writing this piece, scheduling has been an issue. I had volunteers scheduled to attend orientation to work for our summer programs, and turns out the summer ended before they could even start. Due to this interference I fell behind in other work, and had to scramble around last minute. This is a terrible position to be in, so being on top of everything is much more preferable. Learn what needs your immediate attention, and what other tasks can wait until later. Managing volunteers starts with managing your own time properly, and that is a skill I am continuing to develop.

Alex (on the far right) with VIP Fellows from HOIE.

A Catalyst in the Community

By VIP Leader, Erin Rea and VIP Fellow, Mahriana Collins at Napa County Office of Education

At the Napa County Office of Education one of our partner sites is Catalyst Coalition. Through Catalyst Coalition many programs are run on a daily basis. The two AmeriCorps members we have in prevention work with Mariposa groups: programs empowering young women to make their own smart decisions and giving them the resources and knowledge to resist peer pressure. In addition to Mariposa groups, which happen at the local middle schools one day per week, Catalyst has also been working on an anti-marijuana campaign helping kids to “use your head, not weed” and to “be ahead of the crowd." This effort is just beginning and has already made positive changes. Catalyst also works with gang prevention, tobacco prevention, and alcohol prevention.

Mariposa is an exemplary effort in Napa County towards girl empowerment, as well as underage youth substance abuse awareness and prevention.  Johana Guzman, Catalyst Coalition’s Prevention Coordinator, with the help of AmeriCorps members, has expanded the group from a few dedicated female youth to over 50 girls at the local middle and high schools. Through their participation in activities, programs and events, the Mariposa members have brought attention to vital issues in their community. Last summer, several of the original/founding members were recruited to serve as Mariposa Leaders called the official Mariposa Advisory Council. The Mariposa Peer Volunteer Leaders, high school students,  completed 30-hours of training to run the Mariposa group in middle schools. I (Mahriana) was honored to help several Mariposa Leaders at Napa High School in creating an underage drinking and driving awareness exhibit called “Wasted.” After installing the exhibit on the walls of a common space at their high schools, the girls continued to reach out to their peers during lunch via a Casey’s Pledge awareness table. The exhibit was called ‘Wasted’ not because the lives of innocent victims of underage drinking and driving are wasted, but because drinking and driving is a choice that teens choose to make. The girls wanted to educate their peers about the power that they hold in making that choice, and to give them vital information towards making that decision.

As powerful mentors to their younger peers, the volunteer Leaders address topics that affect young women such as online safety, alcohol and drug abuse and violence prevention. During bi-weekly planning sessions, the Advisory Council members develop agendas based upon important topics to be discussed during their after school sessions. These girls are leaders in their community, inspiring adults to take action around the issues that affect all youth. Furthermore, the Mariposa group members have reached out to members of the community, youth and adults alike, to help sponsor and volunteer during community events aimed at increasing awareness and honoring Prevention Champions!

The CalSERVES Intern Program: a new way to utilize volunteers

There is an exciting development in the volunteer programs here at the CalSERVES Office and the CalSERVES After School Programs in Santa Rosa.  We have recently started to offer volunteer internships.  These internships provide volunteer interns with greater professional and leadership development than our traditional volunteer positions.

Meghan Schuttler, CalSERVES VIP Fellow, is taking the lead on our internship project.  Her enthusiasm and "get things done" attitude push all of us on the VIP Fellow team to work hard to provide exceptional volunteer opportunities to the community.  Her leadership on the internship program has also helped us develop a series of professional development seminars for volunteers at all of our local partner sites.

Meghan Schuttler, CalSERVES VIP Fellow

With the internship program, Meghan is finding where interns can best serve our organization, while also developing the positions in such a way as to make them rewarding to our interns. Thus far, the program is off to a promising start.  Meghan enthusiastically tells me, “The program is great! Local colleges and high schools are able to provide course credit to our interns and we can set learning goals to provide interns with the skills they want to perfect.”  Being able to tailor the internships to the intern’s specific needs is an important aspect of the program that Meghan is particularly excited about. Intern projects range from event planning for the office to writing and teaching lesson plans at the elementary schools.

Westyn Narvaez, the Administrative Intern at Meadow View School is the most recent addition to the CalSERVES team. A current student at Santa Rosa Junior College, he hopes to pursue a career with the State Department, and thinks this internship is an important step forward to achieving his goal. Westyn has quickly adapted to the CalSERVES program and provides invaluable support to his site supervisor. When asked why he chose this position he stated, ”Because it’s something that I’m good at. If entering data into spreadsheets helps you with your overall goal then I am happy to help.”  This kind of enthusiasm and dedication to the CalSERVES mission is what makes our interns valued members of the CalSERVES team.

As the Spring semester continues at local colleges, more and more applicants are flooding in. Four interns have been placed with CalSERVES and there will be many more to come.  CalSERVES is excited about the new intern program, and excited to see how it develops into the future!

by Alex Rowan, CalSERVES VIP Leader

CSU Monterey Bay VIPs launch MLK Service Pledge Drive

 The largest MLK celebration near CSU Monterey Bay is the City of Seaside’s annual March and Celebration Program organized each year by the Monterey Peninsula Chapter of the National Pan-Hellenic Council.  The dilemma posed to our cohort of CSUMB VIP Fellows was how to include a service event that would not compete with this venerable local tradition.

The solution was the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 40 Days of Service Challenge.  We realized that year after year, the program had included exhortations from various key note speakers for community members to “get involved” – but this goal was left undefined and no concrete list of volunteer opportunities were provided.

So VIP Leader Steven Goings collaborated with the program’s principle coordinator, Alice Jordan, to design a volunteer service pledge drive that would kick off the MLK Day of Service and extend it through February’s Black History Month.   Our goal was to get 1000 hours of service pledged to selected non-profit organizations featured in the program as MLK Challenge Organizations with a focus on health and education.  Other prominent MLK Challenge Orgs other than our VIP sites included the Food Bank of Monterey County, the Salvation Army, African American HIV/AIDS Wellness, Kiwanis Club and the United Way Monterey County Volunteer Center.

When the day arrived, all our VIP Fellows were given volunteer roles to facilitate the set-up, smooth running, and break down of the event.  From working in the kitchen, to stuffing pledge cards in the program, to monitoring parking and of course picture taking, our Fellows were a real presence at the event.  We marched with both the AmeriCorps Week and MLK Day of Service banners and of course our VIP partner sites were among those official MLK Challenge Organizations that tabled at the event.

At the end of the program, VIP leader Steven Goings announced that the number of pledged hours collected came to a grand total of 2385!  Through our collaboration with the United Way, we also made community members aware of services they could take advantage of such as the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program and dialing “2-1-1” for a wide variety of health and human services.

Non-profits, VIP Fellows, program organizers and program goers alike all expressed appreciation and enthusiasm for this welcome new service element to the annual festivities and in fact we have heard from many organizations who vow to duplicate our efforts at local schools and other arenas.

All-in-all our VIP Fellows managed to put service closer to the center of our community’s celebrations of the legacy of Dr. King, raise the profile of both AmeriCorps and our local partner sites, serve in support of the march and program, and initiate a pledge drive that took minimal coordination with maximal impact.  We couldn’t be prouder of CSU Monterey Bay’s AmeriCorps VIPs.

Reading to make a difference: OneOC's Spirit of Giving Project

Last month, groups of volunteers, including Union Bank employees, joined the OneOC AmeriCorps VIP team in reading to kindergarten and first grade classes in Title I schools throughout Orange County for the annual Spirit of Giving Project, one of OneOC’s Days of Service. Our volunteers read to the students about sharing, giving, and helping others in times of need. In demonstration of these qualities, Spirit of Giving was able to donate “Lend a Helping Hand”, a Berenstain Bears story, to each child in every classroom that participated in the reading project.

Pictured to the left are twenty-four students in Ms. Meyer’s blended kinder and First Grade

classroom at Davis Elementary proudly showing their teacher the new books they received. Also pictured are Michael Nussbaum, a volunteer reader from Union Bank, and Jessi Kraai, the AmeriCorps VIP Fellow, serving at KidWorks in Central Santa Ana.

New Years Resolutions: VIP Style

By Alex Rowan, AmeriCorps VIP Local Leader at CalSERVES

The CalSERVES VIPs in Santa Rosa have a lot to look forward to as we enter the New Year.  2013 looks like it will bring tremendous growth for our VIPs, who will make a lasting impact on their organizations.  Here is what some of our VIPs are looking forward to:

Heather Seney, VIP Fellow at the Sonoma County Family YMCA, says, “I look forward to continue recruiting volunteers for the Y’s programs, while establishing partnerships in the community. I am also helping launch a college prep program for high school freshmen, Your Path Your Way. I am eager for the spring, when I plan to get my hands in the dirt and garden with Y kids. This will be a fantastic opportunity for me to talk with kids about something I’m very passionate about.  With 2013 in full swing, I anticipate the remainder of our VIP service term to be the best stretch yet!”

Briana Keating, VIP Fellow at Catholic Charities, says, “I have a lot of exciting new projects for 2013.  For starters, the inaugural edition of a Catholic Charities Volunteer Newsletter will be sent out this month. But, what I am most looking forward to is getting volunteers into new positions at our adult-emergency shelter who can implement a Friday Game Night, lead a library revamp project, and develop healthy living activity classes. I have high ambitions for the rest of my term as a VIP, and I am excited to take on the challenge of implementing all these new projects and am eager to see what 2013 has in store for us!”

Meghan Schuttler, the VIP for the CalSERVES Office, “looks forward to the bright and eager volunteer faces that will soon fill our office and school sites. From training and mentoring, to agreeing on education goals and surpassing them, 2013 will be full of challenges and new beginnings. Another project I am excited to help create is our Volunteer Roundtable, which will offer helpful professional skills that our volunteers can take with them even after their service. 2013 will be a great year of ongoing creation, innovation and education!”

One of Extended Child Care's dedicated volunteers!

Sydney Tanimoto, one of the VIPs at Extended Child Care, is “excited for this new year and the opportunity to continue building sustainability at ECC.  One project I am especially excited about is creating an internship position for a volunteer coordinator to keep the volunteer program running smoothly after our term is up.   This will take time and work but I believe it will be a great benefit to the organization.”

 

Cody Cibart, Statewide VIP Leader, says, “My resolution for the new year is to provide more leadership development opportunities for VIP Leaders around the state. As a volunteer coordinator, I hope to transfer skills to my sites that will result in sustainable volunteer retention techniques without the assistance of a VIP. With determination, hard-work, and collaboration with some very important people, 2013 looks to be a great year!”

2013 will be an amazing year for the Santa Rosa VIP Team.  I’m excited to see them build upon the accomplishments, and overcome the exciting challenges ahead.  I hope VIP Fellows at programs across the state are as excited as we are about the opportunities that 2013 is sure to bring. Happy New Year!

From a VIP Fellow: a welcome to the new year of service

Alex (second from right) with fellow VIP AmeriCorps members Sabina Ahuja and
Cody Cibart (left), and supervisor Lauren Serpa (far right).

By Alex Rowan, Local VIP Leader at CalSERVES in Rohnert Park, CA

Becoming a VIP has been an exciting, albeit hectic, journey.  A month ago, I was home in Colorado, packing up my car, ready to move to Philadelphia to begin graduate school.  The prospect of grad school excited me, and I couldn’t wait to immerse myself in a new city.  However, tucked away somewhere in the recesses of my mind, a thought began to emerge which told me that spending the next year in classes accruing a huge amount of debt would ultimately leave me unfulfilled.  It told me that what I needed was to work in a community, and have opportunities to grow through service that grad school just couldn’t provide.

So I applied to AmeriCorps to see if there was something out there for me.  I didn’t think I would actually give up my ideal education no matter what opportunity presented itself.  I felt more like I was tangentially indulging in a never-to-be-pursued dream of committing a year to service that would quickly be passed by.  That is until I found myself sitting in the dining room fiddling with my webcam so that I could interview with Lauren Serpa via Skype.

Dressed in my nicest polo and my most comfortable pajama pants, I logged into Skype and began the interview.  Lauren told me about CalSERVES.  She asked the standard questions about my strengths and weaknesses, all the while offering an overview of what I might be doing as a VIP.  The opportunity seemed interesting, but what really struck me was that even though we were 1,300 miles away, I could feel Lauren’s enthusiasm for the program radiating from the screen in front of me.  I was sold.

I accepted the position, finished packing my car, and headed west!  After a few days driving, I made it to my new home, Santa Rosa, CA.  I should clarify that I mean home in the broadest sense.  I didn’t know anyone in Santa Rosa, I wasn’t exactly sure what I had gotten myself into, and I didn’t have a place to live, save for the couch of a few generous AmeriCorps alums.  The next day was our first training, and so began my year as a VIP Fellow.

Throughout the following week, I received calls from friends, and even my sister, on the east coast who didn’t get the memo that I had moved to California.  They were still intent on visiting me in Philly before school started.  When I told them the news, they were understandably shocked to discover I had seemingly made a wrong turn back in Colorado and ended up on the wrong coast.  I let them know that plans had changed, and that I followed that tangential dream and made it my new reality.

Although I’m still crashing on a couch, with a very modest income, recently on food stamps, and living a life that is the exact opposite of everything I anticipated my life being at UPenn, I couldn’t be more excited about working as a CalSERVES VIP Fellow for the coming year.  The staff have provided unwavering support, my fellow VIPs are amazing individuals who I am excited to work with, and everyone has the same enthusiasm and excitement for service that Lauren showed when I first spoke with her.

And so I welcome my fellow VIPs at all of our partner organizations.  With continuing support and a passion for service, I know this will be an amazing year of growth for all of us, and for the communities that we are here to serve.

VIP Impact: Steven's Hope for Children

This story comes from VIP Amber Lara, serving with our partner Steven's Hope for Children

We at Steven’s Hope have had the great pleasure of recruiting a number of long-term volunteers in the fields of marketing, accounting, and event planning. We have recently been in the process of reorganizing the organization to spread responsibility, and in that effort we have been developing teams to handle many of the non-profit’s day-to-day operations. These operation teams, which consist primarily of diligent volunteers who dedicate two or three hours per week to the organization, work to cover such areas as event development and planning, finances, marketing, operations of our Children’s Boutique, and fundraising.

Since these volunteers have begun taking on many of the day-to-day tasks at Steven’s Hope, the non-profit’s co-founders have been able to focus their efforts into facilitating many of the organization’s long-term programs and goals. This allows us to focus on problem areas such as fundraising, which in this difficult economic time is essential to the survival of the non-profit.

In addition to the day-to-day day team building, we also held a highly successful event on Sept. 10^th, 2011. Steven’s Hope’s annual One Tough Run is a moderately difficult 5k run which benefits our non-profit directly, helping us to continue our programs designed to assist the families of seriously ill or injured children. This year, the event brought together 109 volunteers for the day, many of whom arrived enthusiastically at 5:00 AM on that Saturday morning. Many of the volunteers thanked me for the opportunity to give back to those families and asked me to please let them know of any other ways that they could help. 

One Tough Run - a Steven's Hope event that brought out 109 volunteers!

Teacher Resource Center Providing Much-Needed Supplies

A post by Bryan Nakawaki, VIP Leader at HandsOn Inland Empire

     For John Naghshineh, the chance to “shop” for school supplies (free of charge) marks a welcome departure from the otherwise harsh reality of education funding shortages. A 14-year veteran of the Ontario-Montclair School District, Naghshineh, a first grade teacher at Lehigh Elementary School in Montclair, cannot recall a time when budgets were stretched so thin and supplies so hard to come by. “It’s really tough these days,” says Naghshineh. “Basic supplies are under lock and key. We can make requests, but they’re getting rejected more and more.” Nonetheless, students must have school supplies. For Naghshineh, that reality has on multiple occasions forced a major financial sacrifice. “It’s gotten to the point where I have to spend money out of pocket on supplies for my students,” he says. 

     

    Naghshineh is not alone. A 2010 report released by the National School Supply and Equipment Association revealed that in the 2009-2010 school year, teachers across the United States spent over $1.33 billion out of their own paychecks on supplies and instructional materials for their students. With additional funding cuts to education proposed almost every year, the end to teachers spending their own money on student supplies appears nowhere in sight.

      

    That’s why the School Tools Teacher Resource Center (TRC) is so valuable. Managed by Inland Empire United Way, an AmeriCorps VIP partner site in Rancho Cucamonga, California, the TRC offers teachers from select low-income schools in the Inland Empire the chance to come in and select supplies for their students and classrooms at zero charge. Founded in 2005-2006, the TRC now serves teachers and students from thirty-eight different schools.

     Lehigh Elementary is one of those schools, and Naghshineh could not be more appreciative of the assistance he receives from the TRC. When asked about the impact of volunteerism and community service on his life as a teacher, Naghshineh is quick to point out that unless teachers are lucky enough to be assigned a Teacher’s Aide, the only source of assistance they typically find is through community volunteerism. “For the lower grades, that’s okay,” Naghshineh muses. “People like to help out little kids. But for upper-grade teachers, there’s not typically much parent or community volunteerism.” As for ongoing service projects aiming to help teachers at his school — Naghshineh believes those are even rarer. “This School Tools program is the only one I’ve heard of in a long time. In fourteen years I’ve not seen anything else like it.”

      Naghshineh hopes that more services and projects will emerge in the future to help teachers of all educational levels. “It’d be great if it happened more often, for companies and schools to partner up and help our kids and teachers,” he says. For now, though, he’s excited that Inland Empire United Way has offered him and his fellow teachers at Lehigh Elementary temporary relief from the sting of budget cuts. “Each year they give us less to spend. This year, they slashed our budget significantly. It’s tough to get money for supplies, and that’s part of why our teachers appreciate this Teacher Center so much.”

     Asked for his final thoughts on the program, Naghshineh decided to keep his message simple and heartfelt.

     “Keep up the great work,” the teacher remarked. “And hopefully I’ll see you next year!”   

The year's off to a great start at Cal Poly SLO!

by VIP Leader Tyler Parthemer

August has meant the beginning of my second term as an AmeriCorps VIP Lead. The first week consisted of three days at my new agency, the City of San Luis Obispo Parks and Recreation Department, and two days of AmeriCorps orientation.  The first three days at my agency were fantastic—I was able to meet a very enthusiastic staff, plan and prepare for the first day of school, introduce myself to school administrators, and meet a group of fifteen amazing young teenagers eager to be a part of our SLO Teens after school program.

The two days of AmeriCorps orientation were also great.  We have a wonderful corps of twenty-seven members all ready and excited to serve and make a difference in our community.  We had the opportunity to learn a little about everyone, write a goal-setting letter to ourselves for the end of the service term, and bond over some great team-building activities.  Despite everyone having just met, we were all able to come together and begin to form professional and personal bonds.  It was an incredible start to a second service term and I look forward to the ten months ahead.

VIP Impact: Clean Up Project at the Guerneville Winter Shelter

Here is a great story from one of this year's service projects coordinated by VIP Leader Annabele Grace!

 

Volunteers at the Guerneville Winter Shelter. VIP Annabele Grace is pictured second from the left at the top of the stairs.

On February 5th, Sebastopol Community Church Youth Group and several client volunteers participated in a service project at St. Hubert's Hall led by West County Community Services VIP Leader, Annabele Grace. The high school students, several community volunteers and shelter clients scrubbed and cleaned, dusted and organized every inch of the building used for the last 3 months as Guerneville's Winter Shelter for the homeless. The group was also led (by shelter clients) on a trash patrol throughout the areas surrounding the shelter, including Main St. and the Guerneville Plaza. Kids, adult volunteers and homeless themselves worked side by side with an enthusiasm that was inspiring.
Client volunteer Justin Miller remarked: "I am thankful for the opportunity to do something useful and positive in my community. I was feeling down (because of not having work) and today I felt I did something worthwhile."
Another client volunteer said, "I am grateful I have a warm place to sleep every night thanks to the shelter. This is one way to show my appreciation."
"We hoped to leave the facility in even better condition than before we started the lease." said another volunteer, who asked to remain unidentified. (St. Catherine's church opted not to renew the lease at St. Hubert's Hall through March. The Winter Shelter moved after this project to the Guerneville Veterans Memorial Hall, where it functioned through March 31.)