A short two and a half months into their year of service, Volunteer Infrastructure Project (VIP) Fellows across the state have already dived into their year-long volunteer recruitment project by holding large-scale service projects in the communties they serve.
During the month of October, VIP Fellows from all over the state participated in Make a Difference Day: a service day that utilizes community involvement to meet targeted community needs. These projects were all united in their goal of mobilizing community volunteers.
Owen Martin, one of the VIP Fellows at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, put together a very successful Make a Difference Day, with over 400 volunteers who helped 28 different agencies across the county. Independentsector.org estimates a volunteer hour in California is worth $22.79. Based on this figure, the time served volunteering that day was worth approximately $36,000. Owen says: “On October 23, individuals and groups from around San Luis Obispo County came together in the spirit of community and volunteerism to lend a hand to local nonprofit agencies. Their help and support made this year one of the most successful Make a Difference Days in its twelve-year history in San Luis Obispo County.”
In addition to Make a Difference Day, many VIP sites have gotten the ball rolling and held additional large service projects. For example, this past September Volunteer Center of the East Bay worked with Civicorps Schools, one of its partner organizations, to host the Creek to Bay Day event to clean up an Oakland park. Ursula Machado, the VIP Fellow at Civicorps, coordinated the event with City of Oakland staff and recruited an incredible 500% more volunteers for this year’s event compared with last year! All of the Volunteer Center of East Bay’s VIP Fellows also showed up to rally around Ursula and help make the park beautiful.
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