Articles tagged with: volunteerism
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Governor Inslee released his budget priorities for “Working Washington” on March 28, the state Senate released their biennial budget on April 3, and the House released its budget on April 11. The budgets differ significantly in support for housing and human services but have overlap in education. With all budgets formally released, active negotiation among the three parties now begins on the FY 2013-15 biennial budget.
All three budgets emphasize education including some early learning but deal with housing and basic needs differently. The Governor proposes…
When I dropped my son off at preschool this morning, it was 29 degrees outside. Not a warm morning to say the least, but at least it wasn’t raining, and I was off to help a group of volunteers build a playground at West Fenwick Park in Kent.
What I found when I arrived was about 30 volunteers from United Way, The Seattle Seahawks, GMC and a playground building company Sitelines, all digging in the frozen earth and laughing.
The build was part of…
We all recognize the contribution of volunteers – in youth sports, health promotion, emergency services, faith communities, social services and the environment. We know that volunteers are involved in just about every aspect of service delivery in all walks of life. But, we sometimes forget to acknowledge that volunteers don’t “just happen”. Behind this army of volunteers there exists an equally dedicated group of individuals and agencies who are responsible for the coordination, support, training, administration and recruitment of the world’s volunteers. They are skilled professionals…
United Way of King County’s Day of Caring was a day devoted to harnessing the power of volunteers! Over 11,000 volunteers from business and community groups fanned out throughout King County to work with hundreds of nonprofits on 400 + projects. The accomplishments of this army of volunteers were remarkable. Seeing so many volunteers at work on behalf of the community was truly inspirational. To access some of these amazing volunteer stories check out the September 28th blog post Great work – great stories.…
Congratulations to our colleagues at the King County Library System for being named the Gale/Library Journal 2011 Library of the Year, arguably the biggest honor in the library world. One of the busiest libraries in the U.S., KCLS serves more than 1.3 million King County residents each year, circulating more items than any other library system in the country. Some of the lucky recipients of KCLS services? The thousands of preschoolers who’ve been paired with adults who share books with them weekly through…
Why do you engage volunteers? I ask this question at every workshop I deliver on effective volunteer management. It is an important question to ask. As volunteer managers, we are in the business of engaging people with our organizations. But why? The most common answers I hear: we don’t have enough money to pay for staff; to get work done; to educate the community; to build community connections; and to raise money. There is one answer that encompasses all of the rest. We involve volunteers…
Celebrate International Volunteer Managers Day on November 5th!
Have you thanked a volunteer manager lately? Well…November 5th is the day to celebrate your favorite volunteer manager! We all recognize the contribution of volunteers – they are involved in just about every aspect of service delivery in our communities. Behind this army of volunteers lies an equally dedicated group of individuals who are responsible for the coordination, support, training, administration and recruitment of volunteers. They are an often unrecognized group of professionals who skillfully transform individual…
“Token days are not the ebb and flow of life. They ease our feelings of regret about the way things have to be for the remainder of the year. They do not really change the way things are.”–Jonathan Kozol, “The Shame of the Nation”
Last Friday was Day of Caring, my 13th with United Way of King County. I was among about 300 volunteers (there were over 10,500 total throughout the county) that spent the day at Qwest Field for the Community Resource Exchange. In…
Well…it turns out the “heated feelings” in volunteer management circles about Reimagining Service may be cooling down. My post on July 30 Reimagining Service: What’s All the Fuss, shared some frustrations I’ve been hearing in the field. But in a July 15 post on Jayne Craven’s Blog, she expressed “STUNNED surprise” at receiving an e-mail from the folks at Reimagining Service with a very different message than their initial report [Reimagining Service Report, 2009]. After more research, the focus on…
