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 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

WithinReach AmeriCorps Outreach staff

For over two decades, WithinReach, a statewide non-profit, has helped Washington families take steps towards healthier lives by connecting them with health and food resources while promoting health education and disease prevention among vulnerable populations. Two years ago WithinReach partnered with the United Way of King County to build the Bridge to Basics program – a volunteer effort that trains community members in public benefits eligibility and places them in the community to reach out to their neighbors in need of these services. Over the past two years, Bridge to Basics volunteers and WithinReach’s Community Outreach team completed over 1,200 Basic Food (food stamps) applications and connected with over 6,200 people at places like food banks, Worksources and libraries, linking them with other crucial resources such as utility assistance and low-cost clinics. The story of Lila, a recent US immigrant from the war-ravaged Central African Republic, is a story of just one person who has benefited from WithinReach’s Bridge to Basics Program.

“It was an absolute nightmare.”

Flame-laden batons and spheres of fire – weapons of war – hurled into make-shift shelters smoked villagers out of their dwellings; homes left un-torched pillaged and plundered by enemies and neighbors alike.

These were the manifestations of warfare seen through the eyes of the then 19 year old Lila.

Several decades later, those same eyes stare down at the mounds of job applications and employment brochures. Lila is at Airport Jobs, a job search center within the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where over 50% of job seekers are immigrants or refugees living in South King County.  Lila works at a nursing home as a RN assistant, but spends much of her spare time helping her adult son, Ezra, with his job search. Ezra, who has recently relocated to the US, said to me, “My mom is always caring for everyone else. She came here with me today on her day off… It is a good thing that you are here, because she never would have done this (accessed food benefits) on her own.

What do we do?

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), approximately one in four people eligible for Basic Food are not receiving benefits. Eligible immigrant populations are even less likely to participate in food stamps. In addition, working individuals, such as Lila, are increasingly finding themselves among the hungry. Lila’s situation illustrates that food stamp outreach is valuable for those who are new to public benefits. After all, it is difficult for people to seek out resources if they do not know about them. Consequently, Bridge to Basics fills this access gap by providing in-person support to people in need of food and health care assistance – when and where they need it. By physically going out into the community, Bridge to Basic volunteers and WithinReach staff help those who fall through the cracks access benefits – allowing them to use the money that they would typically allocate for groceries and food for other essentials like housing costs, car payments, and utilities. One of the benefits of having in-person assistance is that clients can get service and support tailored to their situations (such as help gathering verifications, setting up interviews with DSHS, and obtaining translation services). In addition to reaching out to a community that is often met with systemic neglect, the Bridge to Basics program works to eradicate misconceptions about eligibility and citizenship guidelines that prevent some immigrants from applying.

How did the service affect the life of the client?

As Lila and I worked together to fill out her food stamp application, she expressed her hope that food benefits would allow her to resume buying halal meat, or meat that has been prepared in a manner prescribed by Islamic law. (The Islamic practice requiring Muslims to eat exclusively halal meat is similar to Jewish tradition mandating that members of its faith consume only kosher.) Halal items, which Lila had ceased purchasing shortly after her arrival into the states, is typically more expensive than other meat and poultry – making it difficult to access for those on a strict budget. “They don’t carry it at the food bank, so now I hardly eat any meat.” Lila’s experience expounds how access to food stamps may raise living standards of those in need, including working individuals such as Lila, by restoring a participants’ purchasing power and increasing access to healthy and, in Lila’s case, culturally and religiously appropriate food options versus what is solely available at the food bank.

How did the service impact me?

Serving as an AmeriCorps member on WithinReach’s Bridge to Basics Program has allowed me to come into contact with a mosaic of cultures, and most probably, people I would not have otherwise met. Lila, in a very short time, opened me up to a different world by momentarily transporting me out of King County and into the Central African Republic (CAD), her homeland, with stories of her war-torn, arson- ravaged village. A conflict that has displaced an estimated 220,000 of her countrymen, she shared how in the midst of so much civil chaos, she became separated from her husband of 20 years. According to Lila, in CAD, governmental assistance is non-existent while limited foreign aid from private charities runs out far too quickly. To Lila, the food stamp program, an entitlement program that guarantees all applicants benefits so long as they meet minimum requirements, was “unexpected,” a stark juxtaposition to assistance programs in CAD. Lila’s surprise towards food stamp access highlights how outreach is particularly beneficial to King County’s many immigrant and refugee communities – who are not only new to the country, but are often new to public benefit system.

By providing me with a snapshot of her past life, Lila exemplifies how the benefits of service are a two-way street. Much too often, the assumption is made that volunteerism and public service are unilateral – that the advantage is disproportionately collected by the recipient of the service. My experience with Lila shows that this is absolutely not true. Rather, there is something to be gained by both parties involved. In this case, Lila enhances my worldview, and in turn, this broader cultural literacy will help me anticipate and address the needs of diverse populations – enabling me to become a better service provider and a better citizen of the world.

Lila was approved for $84.00 per month in Basic Food benefits.

What inspires me is seeing the faces of the children that are really happy when I go visit them. The enthusiasm in their faces when we read, play and sing with them, sometimes
I cannot even describe the joy I feel. One of the biggest issues that keeps me up at night are the poverty levels that most of the families I work with are in.

I have one boy in Year 2 who just learned to write the first letter of his name. He was so excited about it, but wouldn’t show his Dad until he had showed me. He actually made his Dad wait until he could show “Miss Cella” first!

We have one parent who’s been so excited by having books in the house that she wants more. She has no money to buy books, but she’s so thrilled about her son learning that she found some cardboard, colored and cut out all of the letters in the alphabet, covered them with plastic wrap, and hung them up in the house. It was wonderful to see her excited enough to do this really spontaneous thing.

I have a single father raising his daughter alone who was in the program a few years ago but still comes by to visit and texts me to let me know how she’s doing in school. He’s become a huge advocate for her education and it’s important to him to stay in touch with us because we really helped him.

I had one girl who had a 16-year-old mom who really struggled when she was in the program. The girl is 6 now, and I swear she’s a genius! She and her mom just stuck with the attitude and outlook we modeled, and she just loves to read.

It’s the small changes I notice. Even one small thing like a parent going from giving absolutely no praise to offering just one or two gentle taps on the shoulder—it can be life changing.

Document Recording Fee HB2048/SB 5952:

Summary:  The document recording fee supports state and county approaches to preventing and ending homelessness ncluding housing vouchers, eviction prevention services, short-term housing assistance, and emergency shelter.  The DRF bills extend the sunset of a $20 real estate document recording fee set to expire in 2013. The $20 fee will be extended for four years and a new temporary $10 fee (set to expire in 2015) will be added to compensate for fewer documents during the recession.

Status: This bill died in the final hours of the last session as the Senate ran out of time.  The bill was reintroduced this session in the House and Senate, passed out of Senate Committee on Financial Institutions and Housing & Insurance and sent to Senate Ways and Means.

Housing Trust Fund:

Summary: The Housing Trust Fund is a capital fund that creates and preserves affordable housing in all communities across Washington State.  The HTF leverages more than four times its funding from other sources and acts as a stimulus to the local economy by providing jobs. More than seventy percent of people served by Housing Trust Fund units make less than $17,540 per year, making it a vital resource in the fight to end homelessness.

Status: Thought before session to be an impossibility, the HTF is now part of a larger jobs bill package rolled out in a Wednesday press conference.  Funding for Housing Trust would be $100 million.

Housing and Essential Needs (HEN):

Summary:  Housing and Essential Needs (HEN) is a new program created last session and enacted in November 2011 in place of the Disability Lifeline cash assistance program.  Instead of providing $197/month in cash  assistance to all eligible clients who were disabled (physically and/or mentally) and temporarily unable to work, the HEN program supports housing costs for
some former DL-U clients who are eligible for Medical Care Services (MCS) because of their disability and are homeless or at risk of being homeless. The state allocation for HEN was less than half the allocation for DL-U cash assistance. Clients receiving medical care services are referred to HEN for evaluation and could be eligible to receive up to $400 in housing support as well as essential needs including bus passes.

Status: The program operates in all counties but with HEN being a relatively new program and not an automatic part of MCS, referrals are taking a while to build.  With only a few months experience in running the program and smaller than anticipated expenditures, the budget for next year may be at risk.

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.

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