Readiness Roadmap Increases Impact of Pro Bono Service for Nonprofits

This year, U.S. corporations will provide $15 billion in pro bono services to nonprofits. For this generous support to make the most impact, nonprofits must understand their needs and determine the best way to engage skilled volunteers. The new Readiness Roadmap, created by the Nonprofit Collaborative convened by Capital One Financial Corporation in partnership with Common Impact, Points of Light and Taproot Foundation, does just that.

The free, online and accessible resource for nonprofits addresses:

• Organizational readiness assessments
• Project readiness assessments
• Pro bono and skills-based volunteerism sourcing
• Project planning
• Implementation
• Evaluation and post-project volunteer recognition.

 "As leaders in the skills-based volunteer movement, we recognize that it takes both strong nonprofit and corporate partners to execute impactful community programs. Our goal is for every business, from Main Street to Wall Street, to have the opportunity to work with strong nonprofits," said Jackie Norris, Executive Director of the Points of Light Corporate Institute. 

Material reprinted from the HandsOn Network.

VCCV Weekly Volunteer Opportunities

·      Lowell School needs individuals to adopt a family for the holidays. Wish lists will be provided for individuals and families. Gifts need to be wrapped and delivered to Lowell on December 19. Volunteers age 14 and over are welcome.

·      December 6 is Family Fun Days at the Phelps Youth Pavilion. Volunteers are needed to help families in the art room working on the make and take activities and to help staff with upkeep of the Pavilion through out the day. Shifts are usually 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. Volunteers age 16 and over are welcome.

·      Volunteers are needed to assist the Family and Children’s Council with gift wrapping on December 8 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and December 9 from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. 2 hour shifts available. Volunteers age 14 or older are welcome.

·      The Salvation Army is looking for volunteers to help with a fill-the-truck event at both Cedar Valley Wal-Mart locations on December 8 from 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Volunteers will hand out wish lists to Wal-Mart customers as they enter the store. Customers can purchase needed items and provide them to the Salvation Army volunteers when leaving.  

To volunteer call 272-2087!

Show Community Support

Help Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity celebrate the completion of two new homes before Christmas. Home dedications are open to the public and encouraged to show support for our community.


Monday, December 17 at 4 p.m.
305 Peek Street in Waterloo

Wednesday, December 19 at 5 p.m.
1613 Aspen Drive in Waterloo

It's #GivingTuesday!

If you want to feel happy - and wonderful about yourself - science has the answer.  Do something for someone else.

Researchers Lalin Anik, Lara Aknin, Michael Norton and Elizabeth Dunn have shown that people who commit random acts of kindness are significantly happier than those who don’t, and spending money on others makes you happier than spending money on yourself. They also have discovered happier people help others more, and they give more.  A positive mood makes you nicer!  This makes a circle: giving makes you happy, and when you’re happy you give more, which makes you happier, which makes you give more.

This selfless circle of happiness is mentioned now because Tuesday is #GivingTuesday, a national day of giving.  Black Friday in stores and Cyber Monday for online shopping are behind us, and we’ve arrived at the day to do something for others.

Here are two ways to celebrate.

1. Go into work today feeling like a star of the movement.  If you read this blog, you are making the world a better place in some way, and you live #GivingTuesday every day of the year.  You are wonderful, and so you should take a moment to feel joy at the difference you make.  Be happy for what you do.

2. Encourage others to support your cause - or whatever cause they love - today.  For example, give and get your gift matched here!  (Thanks to partners the Case Foundation, Crowdrise and Six Degrees.)

Thanks for being a part of #GivingTuesday - and the circle of happiness - with your great work for good.

This blog comes from "Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog."

Be a Joy Maker!

This holiday season, we invite you to Be a Joy Maker! 

  

Share how the young people in your community are making the world a brighter place, and Hasbro will match each act of service by donating a toy to Toys for Tots - up to 100,000 toys! 

   

Share your act of service between
November 19 and December 18
at 
ShareJoy.generationOn.org.  

You can get started here with holiday service project ideas.

Joy Makers, join the toy makers and make this season even brighter!

Happy Holidays,

generationOn 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley!

We at the VCCV wish everyone a safe and happy holiday! We are so thankful for the Iowa dedication to volunteerism which helps create a stronger, more vibrant state.

Iowa volunteers do so many wonderful things and have such interesting stories and serve as an inspiration to us all!

Lauren, Jean & Anne

VCCV Weekly Volunteer Opportunities

·         Lowell School needs individuals to adopt a family for the holidays. Wish lists will be provided for individuals and families. Gifts need to be wrapped and delivered to Lowell on December 19. Volunteers age 14 and over are welcome.

·         December 6 is Family Fun Days at the Phelps Youth Pavilion. Volunteers are needed to help families in the art room working on the make and take activities and to help staff with upkeep of the Pavilion through out the day. Shifts are usually 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. Volunteers age 16 and over are welcome.

·         Volunteers are needed to assist the Family and Children’s Council with gift wrapping on December 8 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and December 9 from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. 2 hour shifts available. Volunteers age 14 or older are welcome.

·         Volunteers age 16 and older are invited to assist with a youth science program on December 8^th from 9:30 until 11:30 a.m. at the Bluedorn Science Imaginarium.

Call 272-2087 to volunteer!

In the Spotlight - Mallard Point Retirement

Mallard Point Retirement is in the business of providing security, comfort and value to seniors seeking an independent and fulfilling lifestyle. Providing the Holiday Touch.

Holiday Retirement was founded in 1971. Today there are more than 300 Holiday Retirement senior living communities across the United States and Canada, and tens of thousands of seniors are enjoying the one-of-a-kind lifestyle only Holiday can provide. Although we have grown in size, we remain true to the core values instilled by William E. Colson, and are as committed now as he was then to improving the lives of seniors.

Volunteers are needed to serve as Adventure Travel Club and Bean Bag Baseball leaders, Bingo Caller, Exercise Leader, Interviewer and Writer, and Resident Game Night leader.

To volunteer, call 272-2087.

Service Learning Update

Anne Frank once said, “How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment: we can start now, start slowly changing the world!” Young people in the Cedar Valley are certainly expressing that very sentiment by their actions in service learning and volunteerism. We have begun service learning classes in six school classrooms and in one church youth group for 4^th through 12^th grade. Most schools have just begun to choose their concerns and to craft projects. We will have projects dealing with preventing school dropouts, an awareness campaign about the effects of bullying, an awareness campaign to help abused children, interviewing and writing of cultural stories about the elderly, and a project that will reach out to military personnel.

Approximately 400 high school students from Columbus and Expo High School helped their community this September through one day service projects. Expo students observed 9-11 Day of Service by cleaning up public areas surrounding their school. Columbus students celebrated their Homecoming Week by spending a morning doing service projects throughout the community.

The Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley has a wonderful volunteer simulation game to share. We are more than willing to facilitate this simulation with any class or group. The purpose of the activity is to encourage participants to think about their community values and to highlight the importance of community service and volunteerism.

We are offering a new service this year. We have a short presentation on Family Volunteering that we are willing to present at PTA’s, 4-H groups, agency meetings, and other small groups. Please contact us to find out more details and to schedule a time.   

Call Jean Seeland at 272-2087 to get your youth involved in service.

What is the Blue Zones Project?

Are you ready to live a longer, better life? The Blue Zones Project is ready to help you do just that, once and for all making the healthy choice the easy choice.

The Blue Zones Project aims to adopt the lifestyle principles of these areas to transform American Cities and towns in Blue Zones Communities, where people can “live longer, better” lives.

Both Cedar Falls and Waterloo have recently been selected as Iowa pilot site programs! The two cities are trying to become a Blue Zones Community. Achieving that goal requires six community sectors to pledge and then act on their specific responsibilities. If each sector does its part, then we will all share the benefits of living in a community where well-being is a way of life.

Becoming a Blue Zones Community requires:

· At least 20% of citizens sign the Personal Pledge and complete one action.

· At least 25% of public schools become a Blue Zones School.

· At least 50% of the top 20 community-identified employers become a Blue Zones Worksite.

· At least 25% of independently or locally owned restaurants become a Blue Zones Restaurant.

· At least 25% of grocery stores become a Blue Zones Grocery Store.

· Completion of the Blue Zones Community Policy Pledge.

So, sign up, pledge, and take action! Visit www.bluezonesproject.com today to get started!

Join Us! Join your friends, family, neighbors in a community-wide celebration to kick off the Blue Zones Project.

WATERLOO:

Tuesday, November 27
Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center
Entertainment 5:30 p.m./Program 6:30 p.m.

CEDAR FALLS:

Wednesday, November 28
Cedar Falls High School Auditorium
Entertainment 5:30 p.m./Program 6:30 p.m.

VCCV Weekly Volunteer Opportunities

·         Lowell School needs individuals to adopt a family for the holidays. Wish lists will be provided for individuals and families. Gifts need to be wrapped and delivered to Lowell on December 19. Volunteers age 14 and over are welcome.

·         Discovery Days Rock N' Roll at the Grout Museum is a family oriented, kid friendly program on November 23 and 24 from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Volunteer assistants will help visitors with craft activities with a musical theme. Sign up for a minimum of 2 hours. Volunteers age 16 and over are welcome.

·         December 6 is Family Fun Days at the Phelps Youth Pavilion. Volunteers are needed to help families in the art room working on the make and take activities and to help staff with upkeep of the Pavilion through out the day. Shifts are usually 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. Volunteers age 16 and over are welcome.

·         Volunteers are asked to cover two hour shifts for the Family and Children’s Council to gift wrap for holiday shoppers for a donation on December 8 for 2 hour shifts throughout mall hours; 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Times are flexible. Volunteers age 14 or older are welcome.

Call 272-2087 to volunteer!

American Education Week

The Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley would like to take this opportunity to thank all public educators during American Education Week. This special week allows us to celebrate public education and to reflect upon all who are making a difference in ensuring every child receives quality public education.

The Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley is proud of the educators and students of the Cedar Valley. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with your students and help them learn the value and benefits of service to the community. The Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley promotes volunteers of all ages and we believe youth and young adults have much to offer and gain from volunteering.

We believe all Americans have a responsibility to share in the task of making schools great for every child so they can grow and achieve. We look forward to working with you to help our students achieve their potential as citizens in the 21^st century. 

Creating Traditions of Giving

Since you're making lists these days, we have one for you: 10 holiday traditions that can help your family remember about others. Why not choose one or two that will become yearly rituals? It's a great way to reduce the focus on materialism and make your holiday season a little more meaningful. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Creating New Holiday Customs

Make a Difference.....
 

It's easy to weave a bit of service-focused time into your holidays. Just pick one or more of these projects and make it a seasonal event in your family.

1. Create a giving box. Find ribbons, markers, cut-outs from magazines and other supplies. Then decorate a large box that will serve as your family's "giving box" for the coming year. Use it to collect food or gently used clothes and toys for donation.
2. Sponsor a family. Many families "adopt" a local family for gift giving. Social service agencies (Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, etc.) can match you with a family in need and suggest gifts - usually basics like hats, mittens, socks, underwear, blankets - and toys! If you need help finding a family, visit Volunteer Solutions or www.vccv.org .
3. Make cards. Homemade holiday cards brighten anyone's day. Donate your creations to a local nursing home, Meals on Wheels program or veteran's hospital. Or send them to a service member or child with a life-threatening illness. 
4. Make blankets. Any family can make these ingenious blankets just by tying - no sewing required! Even youngsters can pitch in. Instructions for a simple no-sew fleece blanket. Donate your creations to Cedar Valley Hospice, a local shelter, hospital, or care facility.  
5. Make a 2013 calendar of giving. Sit down together and choose one simple service project per month, then write them on a prominently posted calendar in your house.
6. Pay a Call Each holiday, over 3 million people are confined to places like hospitals and care facilities. More than half get no visitors. You can reduce the loneliness by simply sharing your time. Take along small gifts or homemade treats to share, but call the facility first to see the best time for a visit.
7. Join a toy drive. Pick out a toy for a child in need, then deposit your gift (unwrapped) at a Toys for Tots location. Having your child help pick out the gift can spark their giving spirit. 
8. Bake some goodies. Make some treats to donate to a lonely neighbor, food shelf, or group that serves the homeless or elderly.
9. Organize a family collection. Choose to collect books, socks, shoes, cereal (for a local shelter) or pajamas - pick a different idea every year.
10. Give a gift that gives back. Sit down as a family and peruse these special holiday catalogs, then donate to one of them in your family's name.
1. Heifer International
2. World Vision
3. Universal Giving
4. Changing the Present

The Message of Giving Thanks

Talk About It...

While pondering your new traditions, remember to include conversations about giving back.

• Why are family traditions important?
• Which of the 10 ideas listed here seem like the most fun? The most helpful to others?
• What could our family do to make our gift giving more fun and meaningful this holiday?
• How can we ensure that we don't forget about kindness and giving back during the rest of the year?

This article was taken in part from Doing Good Together, a Newsletter by Jennifer Friedman.

Holiday Volunteering Ideas For Families

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Kwanzaa

- Deliver holiday meals

- Collect food for a holiday dinner and give to Food Bank

- Help elderly in neighborhood decorate for holiday

- Go caroling in neighborhoods

- Donate decorations not used anymore

- Adopt a family (often through a school or place of worship)

- Ring bells for Salvation Army

- Send holiday cards to military personnel

- Drive seniors to holiday parties

- Spend part of the holiday with someone who is alone.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

- Choose any one-day service project

- Take part in a celebration planned by the community

Valentine’s Day

- Make and deliver valentines, balloons and/or flowers to a hospital or nursing home

- Send valentines to people in the military

- Take cookies or other treats to a homeless shelter

Easter

- Deliver Easter baskets to homeless shelters. Consider including food, personal hygiene items, or small toys and candy for children.
- Deliver an Easter meal to a homebound person.
- Set up, cook, and serve an Easter meal (breakfast or dinner) at your place of worship.
- Organize an Easter egg hunt for your neighborhood.

Halloween

- Collect money for UNICEF (visit: www.unicef.org/trickortreat)
- Collect food for Food Bank while trick or treating
- Plan party for children at homeless shelter
- Coordinate a community party as an alternative to trick or treating
- Collect used costumes to donate to those who need costumes. Give to a school or local agency.
- Read Halloween stories to kids at the library.

Honor Our Veterans’ Service With Service

Iowa currently has more than 216,000 military service members and families across the state, and there are countless others here who have served in the past. Add to these the thousands of people whose spouses or children have served or are serving and still we cannot begin to understand how the service and sacrifices of these individuals affects our country, our state, our communities, ourselves. But we know it does.

We know there are veterans who have become the teachers, business people, artists, politicians, activists, and entrepreneurs that help make Iowa the great state it is today. We also know there are veterans who are homeless or in need of assistance. We know there are children in your neighborhood, in your child’s school, or who have only one parent at home because the other is deployed. We know there are families who are proud of the valuable service of their loved ones, yet equally sad they cannot be together. And we know there are servicemen and women deployed throughout the world who miss this place they call home.

It might be easy to be against a war, but difficult to be against those who hear the call of duty and respond as they see appropriate. They care. They want to make a difference. They see a need and they take action. Maybe it’s not the action we’d take, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we show them the honor and respect they deserve.

How? We need to take action ourselves. We can honor their service with our service through a variety of organizations such as the Disabled American Veterans; the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs which assists veterans and active service members and their families in building a better future; the Sierra Club's Military Families and Veterans Initiative; and Welcome Back Veterans, an organization committed to supporting our returning heroes.

We can also honor our veterans by encouraging them to participate in the community. The transition from military to civilian life is critical to veterans’ long-term welfare. While health care and employment are key, community participation also plays a large role in a successful transition.

According to a recent report about the civic lives of our nation's returning veterans, All Volunteer Force, nine out of ten veterans agreed that Americans could learn something from the example of service of veterans, but only half consider themselves leaders in their communities as a result of their military service. The same report noted that seven out of ten veterans who had not yet volunteered said it was because they had not be asked and/or do not have enough information on meaningful service opportunities.

“Recognize our usefulness. We are not charity cases. We are an American asset,” said a veteran from Iraq and Afghanistan. Honor our veterans' service through service and also encourage veterans to add their valuable contributions to the community.

This material has been published by Oregon Commission for Voluntary Action & Service.

Family Volunteering

Family volunteering encourages the members of a family to volunteer as a unit. It can be done by the whole family together, by one parent and one child or teen, or with extended family such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It can be as simple as creating cards for children in the hospital or as complex as bonding hundreds of families together in a day of service at a community park. However families choose to do it, families engaged in service can help mobilize thousands of new volunteers and instill in the next generation a lifelong commitment to volunteering.

The Importance of Family Service

Research suggests that engaging parents and their children in service together has important positive outcomes for everyone involved. It benefits:

·    Children and youth by cultivating positive values, such as caring and empathy, and by developing a commitment to service both now and in the future.

·    Parents by giving them more quality time with their children and all the other benefits of volunteering including increased interpersonal skills and improved health.

·    Families by increasing their sense of cohesion, well-being, and connections to the broader community.

·    Sponsoring organizations and civic life by attracting more volunteers, increasing volunteer commitments, and bringing new energy to traditional volunteer opportunities.

Challenges to Family Volunteering

Along with the benefits of family volunteering, organizations can encounter a variety of real and perceived difficulties when looking to engage families in service and service-learning:

·    Families are busy.

·    Parents, especially low-income parents, do not know about available opportunities for family service.

·    Programming is age-segregated and families often have difficulty finding appropriate opportunities.

·    Tweens and teens may not want to volunteer with their parents.

·    Organizations are just expanding into family-friendly opportunities and have a lack of experience in engaging families in service and service-learning.

Project Ideas

Opening Your Heart and Home

• Organize a fundraiser (e.g., run, walk, etc.) to send a child to summer camp .
• Drive homebound residents to doctors’ appointments, the grocery store or to visit friends.
• Help build a home or shelter in your community.
• Build walking-path bridges, BBQ pits, picnic tables or trails at local parks.
• Be a surrogate family for developmentally disabled adults and include them in your family activities.
• Become a foster family and take care of a child in your community who needs help.
• Coordinate a food drive for people in your community.
• Design a fundraising event to host a child/young adult for a portion of the summer.
• Organize a community “closet cleaning” day and donate old clothes, furniture and other items to a homeless shelter or other organization.
• Help newly arrived immigrant families celebrate their Thanksgiving by collecting food, kitchen supplies, toiletries, clothing, school supplies and toys.

Helping Hands Sprucing Up the Community

• Partner with another family to repair or paint the home of an elderly couple or a family in need.
• Organize a community “closet cleaning” day/week and donate the items to a homeless shelter or other organization.
• Plant and tend a garden for your neighbors.
• Spruce up baseball diamonds by painting the dugout and fence and pulling weeds.

Seniors

• Visit a nursing home.
• Maintain yards or shovel the walks of older adults.
• Take a homebound elderly friend to lunch or dinner.
• Create an intergenerational wisdom quilt (ask adults or seniors for quotes or advice to youth, write them on pieces of paper and tape to the wall).

Working with Animals

• Walk dogs at the animal shelter.
• Conduct a puppy wash at the local animal shelter.
• Volunteer at a zoo working with the animals.
• Care for the pet of a sick person.

For more information regarding family volunteering call the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley at 272-2087 or visit www.vccv.org.

This content is republished from Points of Light.