Monday, February 26, 2018

Volunteering Your Professional Skills

Whether you are a competent cook, a brilliant book-keeper, a fun-loving fundraiser or a diligent director you have skills your community needs.

Skilled/Pro Bono volunteering
Most volunteering requires some kind of skill. Even sorting donated clothing requires some reading and critical thinking skills. Bagging rice requires scooping and pouring skills.

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, Skilled or pro bono volunteering refers to companies and individuals volunteering their professional skills to assist nonprofit organizations in creating or improving their business practices.

Professionals engage the community with diverse and unique skills
While most volunteering requires skill, it's important to highlight opportunities for professionals to lend their specialized skills to the community through volunteering.

Also, "skills" are not only practicing law, medicine, business, technology, and construction. The spectrum of skills includes interpersonal skills like employing empathy and patience, public speaking, mediating conflicts; and creative skills like crafting and theater.

So, while one volunteer might have significant accounting experience, another may be adept at taking large, complex problems and breaking them down into concrete, tangible steps.

Both volunteers have invaluable skills to contribute.
Examples of skilled volunteering:

  • A hospice volunteer took the many thank-you cards received from grateful families of former patients and compiled them into a creative and heartfelt scrapbook. The scrapbook now resides in the hospice's waiting room where families of current patients — as well as staff and volunteers — can find comfort, and experience connection, with others who understand what they are going through.
  • A new volunteer for an organization that builds affordable housing came in wanting to help with construction and, during his interview, the volunteer resource manager learned that he had experience garnered from a 25+ year career in urban planning. While the volunteer wasn't interested in volunteering around the planning aspects of affordable housing (now in his retirement, he was seeking new projects to try), he was up for providing advice from time to time. In the end, both parties were happy: the organization had access to his expertise on an ad hoc advisory basis, and he spent most of his volunteer time on doing hands-on construction on a worksheet.

Assessing your skills
As you prepare to look for your ideal volunteer opportunity, take a few minutes to assess your skills.

  •              What are you good at?
  •              What comes easily to you?
  •              What aspects of your professional life might be assets to an organization or community effort?
  •              What personal or interpersonal talents do you have? 

To help you with this exercise, consider going through the following (although by no means complete!) list of potential skills and abilities: Accounting, Cosmetology, Cooking/Nutrition, Electrical, Engineering, Financial Planning, Graphic Design, Health/Medical, Journalism, Legal/Law, Library Science, Marketing/Public Relations, Masonry, Photography, Plumbing, Research, Sales/Retail, Social Media/ Networking, Software Development, Teaching, and/or Web Development.

Once you've got a good working list of your own skills and abilities, think about how you might want to contribute them.

  • Are there certain things you're good at but just not interested in doing as a volunteer? For example, you might spend your days developing and managing websites, but would rather do something entirely different as a volunteer.
  • Conversely, are there certain skills you'd love to develop and are seeking a volunteer position that will help you do just that?

For complete details on this opportunity, contact the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley at (319) 272-2087, information@vccv.org, or visit www.vccv.org.



Monday, February 19, 2018

4 Ways to Volunteer Inside During the Winter Months

With winter here, you might be thinking about how to take your volunteering to a warmer, cozier location. As temperatures drop and frost or snow covers the ground, outdoor projects become less feasible, giving way to a new crop of volunteering options that you can do from the comfort of your own home.

1. Make hats and blankets to donate
Help others stay warm this winter by gathering some fleece, wool or yarn, and putting it to good use! Make a fleece blanket and donate it to help warm a child in need. Or, break out your knitting needles and make a hat or baby blanket.

2. Write and send greeting cards
Sending greeting cards is not just for the holidays! Write cards for Operation Gratitude to send in care packages to deployed troops, new recruits, and veterans. Brighten a hospitalized child's day with a personal note or card. Want to double your good deed? Check out Greet for Good, a database of organizations that sell greeting cards benefitting the organizations or causes you care about.

3. Throw a party to fundraise for your favorite cause
Fundraising parties aren’t just for politicians and actors. You can throw a party in your house to raise money for a cause you are passionate about. Get your friends and family to help – invite your neighbors and coworkers to attend as well.

4. Help out seniors in your neighborhood
Cold weather, ice, and snow can present some challenges for the elderly. Help a neighbor winterize their home to protect against winter’s chill. You could also help someone do their grocery shopping, bring over a fresh, home-cooked meal, or offer to pitch in with household chores.

For complete details on various volunteer opportunities, contact the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley at (319) 272-2087, information@vccv.org, or visit www.vccv.org.
  
Thanks to the Points of Light Foundation.





Monday, February 5, 2018

Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley Accepting Nominations for Volunteer Awards!

​The Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley is accepting nominations now through Friday, March 16th for the 2018 Mayors’ Volunteer Awards and Top Teen Awards. The awards recognize individuals who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to service through volunteerism in the Cedar Valley.

The Mayors’ Volunteer Awards honor the exemplary contributions of individuals ages 19 and older who dedicate their time and talent to volunteerism in Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Evansdale and surrounding communities in Black Hawk County.

The Mayors’ Top Teen Awards honor youth ages 13-18 attending a school in Black Hawk County. The Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa also selects one junior from each of the accredited high schools in Black Hawk County to receive the $1000 Mother Moon Service Scholarship.

All nominees and recipients will be recognized at special events on May 1. More details to follow. 

Nomination forms are below, available online at www.vccv.org, or may be requested by emailing information@vccv.org.

The awards program is sponsored by the cities of Cedar Falls, Evansdale and Waterloo, the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance and Chamber Ambassadors, the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa, the RJ McElroy Trust and the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley.

Nomination Form