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Exploring the power and versatility of a volunteer program by Michelle Martinez, Manager of Marketing & Promotions A critical message we hear in the educational, health, and social sectors is that it was often the strength of the relationship that was formed that created change. We are often asked to remember those teachers who challenged us to reach our full potential, that mentor who gave us great nurturing advice, and that person who gave us our first shot at a job or project. Understanding that, although not exclusively, people create change in people. That’s why in August 2008, Congreso launched its first ever volunteer pilot program with funding from Temple’s Center for Intergenerational Learnings’ Coming of Age program. This volunteer initiative is a win-win for Congreso. On one end of the spectrum we have services for high school students and young adults that have the goals of graduation and family sustainable employment. Yet the one resource that we don’t have sufficient quantity of is human capital. On the other end we have a generation growing older in popular terms that are known as baby boomers. This generation is now comprised of mostly semi-retired to retired elder adults 50 years and older and to our luck through their hard work and dedication have developed meaningful skills over the years. Individuals that may have some extra time on their hands to put towards investing in our young people through the act of volunteering. By Temple helping us put two and two together it gave us the opportunity to develop Juntos Aprendemos, which means Together We Learn as a program which would focus on how giving back to another person, family, and community could have a great effect on your mental health and state of being. If you have been curious about becoming a volunteer please start here at Congreso. As you read you will see what it took us to develop this program, why it is important to get involved, and the significance of having a volunteer program within a community like ours. 5 Steps to starting a volunteer program Step 1: Understanding Your Needs Congreso focuses primarily on youth and their families in North Philadelphia which challenged us to think harder about how we could take on senior members of the community and Philadelphia as a whole. How could we best utilize the older adults in Eastern North Philadelphia? As an organization that offers a delivery of services we had not thought of how services could be provided to us, since we do most of the providing. But, with the encouragement and support from Temple’s Coming of Age program, however, we realized that although it may be hard to reach out to the boomer community because we do not provide direct services for people 50+ we were actually enabling ourselves to service them in an innovative way. The way that is to better transition them into their next phase in life following retirement from work or from demanding family matters like care giving to a child or relative. So what does engaging elders have to do with Conreso’s mission you might ask? The answer is that it has indeed a lot in line with our mission to strengthen Latino Communities holistically (encompassing all ages), it shares our value of civic engagement and focuses on leadership development through mentorship and serving as role models in the community where there are a lack of Latino and older adult professionals. Brining the old to service the young in some way shape or form was an opportunity we did not want to miss. Step 2: Defining the Volunteer Roles Due to the commitment with Temple’s Center for Intergeneration Learning and several brainstorm sessions we were able to develop compelling volunteer roles for our older adult community. Congreso has the following opportunities available and the reasons they might fit your personal objectives: Corporate Volunteers/ Workplace Mentors Interested in networking? Want to do something fun and fulfilling outside of work? Volunteer. You can spend a few hours a day or week, monthly or annually. Your time spent here is at your leisure. Come to one of our Care Days, or participate in a clothing drive. There is so much you can do that doesn't require much time. We are currently looking for leaders in the corporate world to also be a part of Congreso's Leadership Development Program and Cultivating Futures Fundraising Campaign. Partner with our staff and share your knowledge with us! Professional Speakers Do you have a great knowledge of an important topic such as Healthcare or Finance? Run your very own workshop or become a counselor and help our community increase their knowledge about important issues! Tutors/Teachers The Tutor volunteers will work in the Children and Youth/ Workforce development departments with Congreso's education programs. Congreso is currently partnered with schools such as: Pan American Charter School; Edison Highschool, Julia de Burgos, Harcum College at Congreso and Big Picture Philadelphia. Come join us as we help increase graduation rates in North Philadelphia. Administrative Assistance Congreso is always looking for data entry assistance. Our data is extremely important and it takes a dedicated individual to assist us with organizing key information. Become a part of a family friendly atmosphere and volunteer a few times a week. Directly assist our staff so that we can continue to bring resources into our communities! Volunteer Tax Preparers Directly assist clients with their taxes. Attend a free training with Benefit Bank. Feel good about contributing money back into the families of our community! Care Days/Volunteer Leaders Congreso has several volunteer groups. Become a leader of one of our groups and help coordinate volunteer initiatives! Some of the groups are: Gardening; Community Clean Ups, and Care Day groups. Or simply participate in one of Congreso’s Care Days. Community Events Volunteers Our community is culturally vibrant. Our events and our partner's events are informative, important and entertaining. Come help showcase Congreso in the community. Food and transportation is usually provided. If you are a people person, help us go door to door to fundraise, recruit more volunteers, or by helping get out the vote for an election or by attending and/or sharing your personal story at one of our Advocacy Days! Travel stipends may also be given. Training to be provided.
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Community Gardeners Congreso currently has two community gardens. We need help maintaining them. Be a part of the GREEN action and come garden with us. Step 3: Marketing the Volunteer Opportunities As the recruitment process is ongoing as we wanted to make sure our program sustains longevity. However beginning in November we wrote our first press release which we submitted to mainstream media. Following, we picked up our first interview with a Spanish language community newspaper Al Dia, as well as made a direct ask for volunteers for Congreso’s Cultivando Futuros Campaign at our semi annual Congreso Society meeting, an event where we usually bring together friends of Congreso to get excited for our annual Gala Latina fundraiser, we decided to also add volunteering on the agenda. Lastly we did an event promotion to raise awareness for volunteering to Congreso staff on International Volunteer Day which also created an unexpected buzz with clients and some of the family members of Congreso’s employees, their parents and grandparents. In addition we publicized Juntos Aprendemos in the immediate community and through several forms of media such as: Website postings on Craigslist, Idealist, Volunteer Way and Match, and AARP. Newsletters include: Inspiring Opportunities and Juniata Park’s Older Adult newsletter. Flyer Distribution in local beauty parlors, community centers, and Congreso’s Tax Site. Cultivando Futuros booklets were also created for distribution at the Congreso Society meeting and Corporate Advisory Council Meeting. Step 4: Matching volunteers with organizational/community iniatives Congreso collaborated more closely with our partners/investors and established a 30 member volunteer cabinet board for our Cultivando Futuros Campaign to help us raise 3.2 million dollars in Fiscal Year 2009. We engaged elders from different walks of life some who were receiving assistance with our other community non-profits where we created valuable administrative and community activities for them to do and they felt their contribution was important and others from Corporations who chose to raise money for our Gala. We had resident retirees working in our Health Promotion and Wellness department, Congreso’s community Tax Site and Esfuerzo, our HIV/AIDS support center and lastly and most importantly our family literally became our volunteers and our volunteers became our family. Carmen Matus mother of Lorett Matus, Manager of Quality Assurance at Esfuerzo, volunteers as a Kitchen Aide for their lunch service program and Michael Martinez (my father) volunteered for a variety of community events and activities, Lynda Ginsburg retired teacher and mother of former staff member Gabriel Huffs put her knowledge to use at our Tax Site, and although their volunteer roles were much different all have said in one way or another how good it has made them feel to volunteer at Congreso and give back to this community. Step 5: Managing the volunteer workforce We’ve made successful progress with Juntos Aprendemos by working within four major areas: Infrastructure, getting staff involved and creating necessary volunteer materials; conducting Environmental Scans; delivering solid Recruitment and Implementation efforts. We did this by initially creating a 6 month timeline from August until January to help us stay on top of our goals. Throughout August and September we concentrated solely on infrastructure and creating positions. We conducted environmental scans from October until December. Recruitment and implementation began in November and has grown stronger since January and is currently still ongoing. One of the most important lessons learned was that it is important that your volunteers know the true benefit of what they are giving back. Everyone wants to give back but people claim they do not have the time, but the key is making sure they know why they should make the time to do it. Retention is an obstacle for volunteer programs and employment alike. It is sort of a different ball game when your staff is working and not getting paid. However we found from our volunteers that the payment for them is the gratitude they get back from our clients, our staff and our community. To make the difference should be the ultimate goal for any volunteer and as they are being managed and directed the most important thing to never forget to do with any volunteer is to simply say, thank you! To conclude, Temple’s Center for Intergenerational Learning was more than happy they invested in us to take on this challenge. We were able to fulfill Temple’s grant requirement to accrue 15 volunteers for Fiscal Year 2009 and as a result they have refunded us for Fiscal year 2010 and are looking forward to what the future holds with plans on focusing more concretely this time around on intergenerational learning, combining our youth with professional mentors and community leaders to prosper the Latino Community at large. Temple’s Coming of Age program emphasizes civic and community engagement activities for elder adults, 50 years old and up which encourages the older adult population to revive their lives by doing the opposite of getting old and frail, but rather “staying young” by getting involved! With investment to implement a volunteer strategy helped us gain an extended volunteer family that in turn gave back more to us through in-kind resources than the original grant awarded. To get more information on how to become a volunteer at Congreso please contact Michelle Martinez, Marketing & Promotions Manager at 215-763-8870 extension 1547 or martinezme@congreso.net.
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