It’s Friday (and gloriously sunny out, if you haven’t noticed), and you know what that means? Volunteer round-up time! This is where we tell you about all the new volunteer opportunities that were posted on the United Way Volunteer Website in the past week. If you don’t see anything on this list that strikes your fancy, fear not! There are hundreds more volunteer listings for you to peruse at www.uwkc.org/volunteer. Yeehaw!

Tutor/Mentor Refugee Youth

Sponsor: Coalition For Refugees From Burma | Location: Seattle, WA 98118

Volunteer tutors will provide individualized in home tutoring services to high school aged refugee youth. Tutoring sessions will focus on building students’ academic skills, helping students to self-monitor their progress in their classes, and assisting with college preparedness and. . . more

Volunteer at Vegfest 2012

Sponsor: Vegetarians of Washington | Location: Seattle, WA 98109

Vegfest is the largest vegetarian food festival in the United States. It is held at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall each Spring. Each year there are doctors and dietitians talking about nutrition, chefs giving cooking demonstrations, a huge bookstore and. . . more

MathFest — Elementary Math Like You’ve Never Seen It

Sponsor: Explorations In Math | Location: Seattle, WA 98122

Imagine a community gym filled with squeals of delight, high-fives and gleeful jigs when a challenge is met. Imagine now that coming from families playing math games! MathFest Seattle is the annual math bash at the Rainier Community Center. . . more

Help elementary students succeed! Afterschool tutors needed

Sponsor: Neighborhood House | Location: Seattle, WA 98146

Think that your three hours a week don’t matter? Tell that to Hakeem who didn’t finish today’s homework because it was too hard. He could’ve used your three hours. . . more

Reading Heroes Wanted!

Sponsor: Communities In Schools Of Seattle | Location: Seattle, WA 98118

Share your literary passion with a struggling student by becoming a Reading Buddy! It’s a great way to spend a couple hours during the weekday. You could have the opportunity to reconnect with childhood and make a HUGE impact. . . more

Volunteer for the 2012 Big Climb!

Sponsor: The Washington/Alaska Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society | Location: Seattle, WA 98104

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is looking for volunteers to help with the 26th Annual Big Climb on Sunday, March 25th! Volunteers will support participants as they climb 69 flights of stairs at the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle. . . more

Help Homeless women get back on their feet!

Sponsor: Sojourner Place | Location: Seattle, WA 98105

Help women experiencing homelessness get back on their feet. Multiple volunteer positions available including Counselor, Art Instructor,
Newsletter Editor, Web Master, Handyman/woman, and more.

Whether you’re looking to grow your volunteer management skillset, learn how to more strategically engage volunteers at your organization, or you just want to get together with other volunteer management professionals, there are a number of great trainings and networking events coming up in the next few months!

February 9th  “Leveraging Volunteer Engagement to Accomplish Your Mission” 8:30-10:30am Cost: $25 Details and Registration

February 22^nd VAN (Volunteer Administrators Network) Professional Gathering @ Noel House in Seattle. Free

February 24^th 2012 Volunteer Manager’s Summit in Bellevue. Free

March 6th Strategic Job Design: Designing Volunteer Roles for Impact! 9:00am-1:00pm $45 Details and Registration

March 8th “Board Centered Leadership” 8:30-11:30am Cost: $40 Details and Registration

March 28^th VAN (Volunteer Administrators Network) Professional Gathering @ Pacific Science Center in Seattle. Free

April 3rd & 17th “Effective Volunteer Management 101″ 9:00am-4:30pm Cost: $170 Details and Registration

June: 2012 VAN (Volunteer Administrators Network) Conference. Exact date TBD

Monthly: #NPFace: A meetup for Seattle area nonprofits to share social media best practices. Next meetup is at The Diller Room on 1st and University downtown Seattle from 5 – 7 pm on Thursday February 23^rd Free

Have we missed anything? Email us at volunteer@uwkc.org if you have trainings or events to add to this list!

MLK Day volunteers with Senator Patty Murray at YouthCare

A Los Angeles Times article recently dubbed Seattleites “snow wimps” after our mid-January wintry blast shut down much of the city. Clearly, what the LA
Times didn’t know was that despite the snow, ice, and generally nasty weather, nearly 1,300 volunteers (and volunteer managers!) throughout King County left the comfort of their warm homes to spend the day serving the community in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Students from Seattle University and the University of Washington came out in force, along with members of the local business community. Senator Patty Murray even got into the spirit of the day, volunteering at both YouthCare and the VA Fisher House. While some projects were forced to cancel due to the weather (pulling blackberries in the snow is a hard sell for even the most enthusiastic volunteers), over 60 agencies benefited from $100,000 in volunteer labor. Not too shabby for a bunch of snow wimps.

2012 Jefferson Awards for Public Service

The Jefferson Awards honors ordinary people who do extraordinary things for others. Initiated in 1972 to create a “Nobel Prize” for public service, awards are presented both nationally and locally. Five volunteers from Washington State will receive the Washington State Jefferson Award for their outstanding volunteerism. The winners will be judged by a panel of community leaders and their stories will be told on Evening Magazine the week of March 12th.

If you are a volunteer manager, or work with volunteers in any capacity, this is not only a great opportunity to recognize your exceptional volunteers, but your organization will also receive free volunteer management assessment and consultation from United Way of King County if your nominee is one of the five winners.

For more information visit www.seattlecityclub.org/jeffersonawards Nomination deadline is February 10th

The Seattle-King County Asset Building Collaborative will be having their annual Financial Fitness day on March 31^st. They have joined with over 40 community partners to be able to bring community members FREE financial services. These services include everything from one-on-one help filling out a tax return, printing and analyzing free credit reports, opening bank accounts, creating a household budget, working with a financial planner, applying for public benefits (food, utilities, child care, health insurance, social security), learning how to start a business, shredding confidential documents, and—new this year—completing a FAFSA application!

Services will be provided by experts, including attorneys, financial planners, housing counselors, credit counselors, public health workers, and volunteer tax preparers. Workshops will be offered throughout the day on a variety of financial topics, such as understanding credit reports, budgeting and money management, first-time homeownership, paying for college, and dealing with debt collectors. More than 40 community groups will offer resources and advice.

To register for this event or to find out more information, visit the SKCABC website. Registration is strongly encouraged for those who need childcare, language interpretation or American Sign Language services.

Interested in volunteering for the day? Check out the positions on the United Way of King County’s website.

The Volunteer Impact Program (VIP) is a free 10-month program available to local nonprofit organizations through a partnership between United Way of King County and 501 Commons. Now in its third year, the program provides more than $20,000 in assessment, training and consulting services that can boost an organization’s ability to engage and manage volunteers. In an era of diminishing financial resources, volunteers are a critical resource for nonprofits.  You can help them maximize that resource as a volunteer consultant.

As a volunteer consultant you will work with nonprofit staff to assess their volunteer involvement efforts, and assist the nonprofit to develop a plan for using volunteers more effectively.

To learn more about the Volunteer Impact Program and to see how VIP has helped to strengthen local nonprofits visit: Volunteer Impact Program: Results from 2010 and 2011

Interested?  Visit Be A VIP in 2012 or contact Karen Molinari at karen@501commons.org.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/the-2011-best-illustrated-books/

A little over a month ago, me and my co-AmeriCorps VISTA, Katherine, visited Providence Regina House food bank near White Center to supervise our Bridge to Basics volunteers, talk to food bank clients, and get those in need in touch with public benefits such as food stamps.  It was their annual Thanksgiving distribution and they were busy making sure clients were set up with enough potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry to celebrate the holiday with their families.  Turkeys were in high demand and not everyone was lucky enough to walk away with one.  Katherine used her excellent language skills to communicate with the Spanish-speaking clients and we both had the chance to see and hear what was happening on the ground: at the food bank, and in peoples’ lives.  We met many kind, modest people – one man who was volunteering at the food bank sweeping the floors and carrying boxes, was also a client there himself.  He expressed how fortunate he felt that the food bank was there, being out of work due to a disability and unable to afford food or health care.  We were able to complete two Basic Food applications for two different families and will follow up and advocate on their behalf, thanks to our partner, WithinReach, and their amazing outreach staff.

There was one person that stood out among the rest, and his story is one I’ve already told to countless people as a true example of the giving spirit.  Near the end of the day, a middle-aged gentleman (we’ll call him Harry) approached our resource table and, noticing the AmeriCorps badge on my shirt, said, “Oh AmeriCorps, is that like the Peace Corps?”  We explained who we were and the kind of work we do, as well AmeriCorps’ & United Way’s shared mission of combating poverty and helping the most vulnerable in our society.  Harry responded, “That’s great.  I’d love to do something like that, you know, give back.  I’m homeless now but money doesn’t mean much to me anymore.  I still want to help.”  All I could think was that this man is homeless – he has no money, few clothes, very little food, nothing; yet he still wanted to “give back.”

What he said has stuck with me ever since then and it was amazing to see the giving and selfless spirit in someone who has next to nothing in material possessions.  It make me wish that those who are critical of the poor or the social safety net system could meet Harry and see that there are many more out there like him.  People who are being helped by places like food banks, shelters, or public assistance are not to be pitied and they aren’t helpless or lazy.  They are human beings who have fallen on tough times and deserve dignity and respect and a little extra help.  What sets people like Harry apart perhaps is that they truly realize the importance of volunteering and serving others because they have been helped in their time of need.  Every single one of us has received help at some point in our lives and we have the natural inclination and the responsibility of giving back or maybe paying it forward.  Either way, for me Harry was a living, breathing manifestation of the giving spirit that exists in all of us.

If you’d like to get involved and give back to the vulnerable in your community you can join Bridge to Basics too and take advantage of a unique opportunity with United Way’s free tax prep campaign.  We still need volunteers to staff shifts once a week at all of United Way’s 16 different Free Tax Prep sites all across King County.  Want to know the best part?  You don’t have to do peoples’ taxes!  Instead, you get to be the friendly face who will greet our clients at the intake desk, help them prep their paperwork for free tax help, and provide the crucial link between them and vital public assistance by screening for eligibility and helping them apply.  We all have the giving spirit within us and here’s an opportunity to share that spirit with those in need during tax season.  Click here to learn more and sign up – hurry!  Some sites are already full and others are going fast.

The free VIP program provides more than $20,000 in assessment, training and consulting services to boost your organization’s ability to engage and manage volunteers. In an era of diminishing financial resources, this is a real plus.

Take community newspaper Real Change, for example.

With its regular staff of only 11, volunteers are essential to the newspaper’s capacity to deliver on its mission. Last year, 240 volunteers contributed more than 7,000 hours of service, worth about $105,000, says Jenn Pearson, Real Change volunteer coordinator. After participating in VIP this year, Real Change has already improved the way it screens and matches volunteers, introduced a culture of appreciation for volunteers, and invested in a volunteer database that has significantly improved efficiency, Pearson notes.

If you’d like this kind of success for your organization, participate in VIP. Applications are due Jan. 16, 2012, for the upcoming February 2012 session.
Learn more about VIP and the application process >>
See how VIP has helped strengthen volunteer programs for 19 hunger and 17 early-learning groups >>

A child in this program (who speaks little English) used to cry every time her mother dropped her off. However, when Kathy began reading the book Abiyoyo (by Pete Seeger), the little girl began to hop and sing along with the book, “Abiyoyo, abiyoyo….” Moments like this are Kathy’s favorite. When the children begin to count and point out colors as Kathy shares the story of a llama in red pajamas waiting for llama mama to tuck him in, she knows her reading is making a difference.

In 2008, Kathy heard President Obama speak at Seattle Center and decided, “I’ve got to put my money where my mouth is.” Passionate about the importance of reading, she began her own non-profit organization called Open Doorways Reading Room. Kathy realized that many middle-school students were missing the opportunity to enjoy the fun and thought-provoking experience books can provide, so she began reading aloud to seventh-graders after school. The same year, she became a Volunteer Reader.

By the end of the school year, students in Kathy’s Seattle First A.M.E. class are on the cusp of reading. They identify letters and sound them out while becoming confident in these skills. Kathy observes the children progress from simply repeating sounds to repeating words to forming sentences; she states, “You could see it, the light bulb was going on.”