We Can't Do It Without Volunteers!
Posted on May 11, 2011
On a beautiful spring evening last week, VSH held a reception to thank volunteers at the home of VSH Board President Leon Shadowen. It was our first official volunteer recognition event since implementing our volunteer program in 2010.
If you look at sheer numbers alone, our embrace of volunteerism has been wildly successful: over 450 volunteers in 2010 compared with 50 in 2009. We logged almost 500 hours per month of volunteer time in 2010!
But, who’s counting? What’s really important is the experience that volunteers have working with VSH, its properties and clients (volunteer satisfaction with their experience was either good—64% or excellent—36%). Even more important is the impact that volunteers have on VSH and the lives of our clients. Just watch the YouTube video that features Capital One volunteers helping Joe Brightful move into his new apartment to get a sense of the impact.
While many volunteers supported us in many valuable ways last year, we felt compelled to give special recognition to three groups of volunteers who went above and beyond the call of duty. We were privileged to give our Bob Sledd Volunteer of the Year Award to:
- Capital One for logging over 600 hours on VSH projects!
- Grove Avenue Baptist Church for faithfully bringing dinner and fellowship to New Clay House residents for more than 10 years!
- Commonwealth Chapel, whose many projects at New Clay House include a 12-hour day installing new tile in the community room—and they’re still coming back for more!
This wonderful new volunteer program at VSH doesn’t just happen on its own. VSH is extremely blessed to have the best volunteer coordinator in town, Alison Jones-Nassar, who tirelessly works alongside the volunteers, smiling and encouraging all the way. The volunteers do an amazing job because they know that every single activity and project they do helps us accomplish our mission to end homelessness!
So, thanks to everyone who attended this beautiful event last week and thanks to Leon Shadowen and his wife Laurie for hosting the event. Most of all, thanks to every VSH volunteer for giving the gift of your time so that we can do what we do best – provide proven, permanent solutions to homelessness. We can’t do it without you!
To see photos of volunteers in action, click here. To be a part of VSH’s volunteer program in 2011, click here.
