The Volunteer Connection
Winter 2020
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Dear Friends,
We hope you enjoyed the inaugural issue of the
Volunteer Connection
back in the fall, and we're excited to keep the momentum going for the volunteers and volunteer managers in our service area. This quarter, in addition to highlighting and welcoming a brand-new nonprofit organization and Supporting Partner to our network, you'll see several hardworking volunteers that deserve to be recognized, as well as a featured volunteer opportunity. If your organization would like to recognized in any way, we simply ask that you join HandsOn as a
Supporting Partner
and that you have volunteer opportunities listed on either the
HandsOn GetConnected
platform or
Love Out Loud's Base
. Please reach out to
Brittney Albert
, our Community Engagement Coordinator, to be featured in the Spring issue.
Whether you are a volunteer, a manager, or BOTH, thank you so much for all you do to make Winston-Salem and all six counties in our service area great places to live, work, play and SERVE!
Yours in service,
Amy, Kathy, Brittney and Julia
The HandsOn NWNC Team
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Featured Partner Organization
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DENT Creative Reuse Center and Art Laboratory
is a new nonprofit whose mission is to encourage creative endeavors, environmental awareness, and building community...making a DENT in the waste stream, one art project at a time. They are looking for board members and volunteers to help build this unique organization into a brick and mortar operation with an extensive and collaborative programming arm. Their current Mixed Doubles (MD) includes tandem lectures on unrelated topics and a playful, fun, and informative 8-week FREE lecture series that features two presenters each session, 20 minutes each, followed by a combined Q&A. MD celebrates all areas of the community and reaffirms their belief that everyone has special skills, talents, passion, expertise, or research interests to share in a mash-up format.
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Since 2017,
Carol Maurin and her therapy dog
Brodie have volunteered with ABC of NC, a local non-profit dedicated to providing diagnostic, therapeutic, and educational services to people with autism spectrum disorder. Together with ABC of NC staff, Carol and Brodie assist clients with a variety of goals related to movement and engagement, all in the context of appreciating our furry friends. Clients look forward to weekly visits from Brodie, a rescue from
AARF, and everyone enjoys Carol's caring and positive presence.
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Sam McCormick has been a dedicated volunteer at Catholic Charities for the past 3 years in several different capacities. He serves on the local advisory board, is a member of the Partners in Hope fundraising event committee, has helped pack food in the food pantry, and for several months now has met individually with Transition Out of Poverty participants to help them access community resources to address needs beyond their need for food. Sam says he feels the most satisfaction in listening to people and giving them support and guidance. He wants Transition Out of Poverty participants to leave feeling like someone cared and took the time to help them. Sam is making a difference in the lives of the people he talks to, and he invites others who want to volunteer and make a difference to join him.
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Michelle Wolfe has been a Brenner Family Room volunteer since July 2018. She wanted to show the families that use the Family Room some extra love on Valentine’s Day, so she purchased candy with her own money and wrote a short handwritten note on each piece. The families were very grateful for this sweet gesture.
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“You will always regret failing to reach your fullest potential”
Chelsea Barnes is no stranger to hard work. When she’s not at her day job as a healthcare attorney in the Winston-Salem office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, she’s LEADing the way at LEAD Girls of NC Inc. as the Board Vice Chair. Chelsea has dedicated endless hours to making sure our girls have a chance to reach their fullest potential despite the adversities they face.
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Featured Volunteer Opportunity
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The Shepherd's Center of Greater Winston-Salem
is celebrating 35 years of promoting and supporting successful aging by providing supportive services, enrichment activities and volunteer opportunities for older adults. This past year they expanded their transportation services to include trips for essential errands and social outings. Last year they averaged 80 trips per week and, since the beginning of 2020, have consistently provided over 125 trips per week.
The Shepherd's Center staff calls upon volunteers to make as many of these trips as possible. However, the program expansion and increase in demand means even more volunteers are needed to drive folks to their doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping and other necessary outings. In addition to transportation volunteers, the Center also has a great need for volunteers to provide caregiver support and visit homebound elders.
Would you like to learn more about getting involved with The Shepherd's Center? Visit their
website
, check out their
GetConnected profile
, or reach out to
Vicki Poore
, their Volunteer Coordinator.
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GetConnected Training and Networking
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We’re excited that our new online volunteer platform,
GetConnected
, has had a successful transition since its launch in September!
GetConnected is an intuitive, user-friendly platform where organizations from all over the community are able to post their volunteer needs and upcoming service events, and volunteers are able to find places to serve that connect to their passions, interests, and schedules.
This platform is part of our continued partnership with
Love Out Loud
. Like many of you, we recognize the value of collaboration and alignment to strengthen our efforts and impact. (Love Out Loud is calling the new platform BASE, but it is the same platform.) If you have an account on GetConnected, there's no need to create a duplicate account on BASE (or vice versa) as the sites share the same information.
Please reach out to our AmeriCorps VISTA member,
Julia Ough,
with any questions about your HandsOn GetConnected volunteer or agency profile. She is happy to schedule time to speak with you over the phone or to meet in-person.
Julia hosts monthly
GetConnected training and networking meetings at the Winston-Salem Foundation. The March training opportunity will be on Thursday, 3/5 from 10:00-11:00am.
At these meetings, she answers any questions you might have and shares her thoughts on how to get the most out of the site. This is also a great opportunity to meet other volunteers and volunteer coordinators in our region. At these sessions we learn from each other's questions about and expertise in volunteer engagement. Can't make either of these two sessions? No worries -- Julia hosts these sessions every month.
Follow our Facebook page
for when they are announced. Please register for the sessions below or simply come!
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Forsyth County Governor's
Volunteer Service Awards
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Tuesday, April 28th, 2020
8:00 am
Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center Conference Center
3333 Silas Creek Parkway
Winston-Salem, NC 27103
Don't miss the most inspirational, feel-good event of the year in a brand new venue!
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Sponsorship Opportunities, Tickets, and the
People's Choice Awards
We hope to see you at our largest event of the year, the
Forsyth County Governor's Volunteer Service Awards breakfast.
Bringing together approximately 300 diverse members of our network, from community volunteers, their families, nonprofit and business partners, to local officials and representatives of the NC Governor's office, the breakfast gives us the opportunity to highlight the amazing work of more than 50 outstanding volunteers, with winners in 16 categories.
Individual tickets for the breakfast are now on sale, and we're currently accepting event and table sponsorships from those companies and nonprofits that understand what a rare opportunity the breakfast is-- a chance to support dozens and dozens of diverse organizations and their volunteers, all with a single gift! You can learn more about the breakfast on our
website
, which includes links to the sponsorship form and the
ticket link
.
You'll also want to be on the lookout for the People's Choice Award voting process, which will be going live in a couple of weeks. That means you and your respective organizations, friends, family, and the community at large can vote for your favorite volunteer by logging in to an online web portal managed by the Winston-Salem Journal. The individual or group who receives the most votes is announced at the Breakfast on April 28th, along with the traditional category winners that are chosen by the GVSA Selection Committee.
Have questions? Please don't hesitate to reach out to
Brittney Albert
.
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Board Training Opportunities
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PROJECT BLUEPRINT BOARD LEADERSHIP TRAINING
is a leadership development program designed to increase the number of underrepresented groups on local nonprofit boards and committees. Project Blueprint provides participants with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively serve on a nonprofit board or board committee, connections to a peer group of other civic minded persons, and placement assistance on a nonprofit board. The program closely follows the Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards, published by BoardSource, a nationally recognized organization dedicated to increasing nonprofit board governance.
Applications are accepted through the
deadline of April 3, 2020
. Class size is limited to ensure a high quality experience and more meaningful networking.
Classes will meet five consecutive Fridays from May 8 – June 5, from 9 am-12 pm
.
COST: $75/person
(includes light refreshments and extensive resources/take-home materials)
HANDSON BOARD LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Are you interested in board training but would like a more condensed version of Project Blueprint? Join us for this half-day training instead, facilitated by the ever-popular Karl Yena! HandsOn Board Leadership Development is for board members who are in leadership positions or who are moving toward leadership roles on nonprofit boards as officers or committee chairs.
Topics include a review of board officer roles and responsibilities, committee chair accountability, attributes of effective board and committee leaders, board policies, executive committee structure and responsibilities, key benchmarks for effective boards, a self-assessment leadership instrument, planning processes and tools, leading and conducting effective meetings, group communications, appraising board and committee effectiveness, and other topics of interest as identified by workshop participants. For the greatest impact from this training, full boards or multiple board members from the same nonprofit are encouraged to attend. The training will be held on
Thursday, March 12th, from 12:30-3:30 pm at The Winston-Salem Foundation
.
COST: $50 for Supporting Partners/$60 for all others
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HandsOnNWNC.org
| phone: 336.724.2866 | fax: 336.724.4467 |
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