Finding Time To Volunteer

	VOLUNTEERING FOR OTHER NON-PROFIT AGENCIES: If you have 5 minutes You could give blood If you have 1 hour You could help at a soup kitchen If you have 5 hours You could clean up a park If you have 5 days You could build animal shelters through local schemes If you have 1 month You could raise funds and awareness for a human rights organization If you have 1 year You teach children at an orphanage in Thailand According to woorldvolunteerweb.org

Time Magazine recently published a list of the Top 10 Commonly Broken New Year’s resolutions. And yes, you guested right; losing weight and getting fit was the first broken resolution. But if you read all the way to the bottom, Number 9 was volunteering. According to the article, finding time all too often proves harder than finding money. But volunteering will actually help you keep your resolutions.

Volunteerism has many benefits, for example: improve your health, make important networking contacts, learn or develop skills, teach your skills to others, enhance your résumé, gain work experience, build self-esteem and self-confidence, and meet new people. Beside the benefits to the person volunteering, volunteerism has a monetary value.

Over $7 Billion of service has been contributed to the act of volunteering in Illinois and 347 million hours of service in 2010. (See Volunteering in America to read more). According to Studies by Johns Hopkins Center, “even conservatively estimated, the value of volunteer work in countries throughout the world is roughly double the value of contributions of cash or other valuables by individuals, corporations, and foundations together” (http://releases.jhu.edu/2011/03/23/counting-the-volunteers/). Volunteers provide meaningful and needed contributions to every agency, beyond the monetary value placed on their act of volunteering.

Community Support Services depends on volunteers to meet the needs of our clients and mission. We are committed to strengthening the independence and self-esteem of our client’s and their ability to participate in and contribute to community life. One step to make our client’s independent and contribute to the community is through the Customized Supported Employment Service program.

VOLUNTEERING FOR COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICES: If you have 5 minutes Open our website and read our newsletter If you have 1 hour Clerical assistant in office If you have 5 hours Job coaching / CILA home maintenance or game / activities If you have 5 days Event planning and implementation Once a month Serve on a committee If you have 1 year Commit to any of the above

The Employment Service program helps participants secure and maintain employment that matches their interest, develop an employment plan that will lead to gainful employment, and ongoing training and support services. This support system includes a job coach.

Job coaches are volunteers placed with a participant to teach interview techniques, write a resume, and provide employment guidance. These volunteers commit to 2-4 hours a week for six weeks. The volunteer then provides ongoing coaching until the participant is fully integrated into the position.

These valued volunteers provide a service which is priceless; they provide the participant (in some situations) the opportunity to live independently and contribute to the economy. Above all else, volunteers help the participant feel self-confidence as being employment builds self-esteem.

So, don’t let the year end without volunteering at Community Support Services. There are many volunteer opportunities. If you are looking for job experience, internship, or a meaningful experience, please consider volunteering at Community Support Service. Your act of volunteerism just may keep you from breaking your New Year’s Resolutions.

Volunteering in Illinois:

The bullets below are all based on an average using 2008 to 2010 data:

• 2.7 million volunteers
  
  
• 26.9% of residents volunteer - ranking them 29th among the 50 states and Washington, DC
  
  
• 347 million hours of service
  
  
• 34.8 hours per resident - ranking them 28th among the 50 states and Washington, DC
  
  
• $7.4 billion of service contributed

Based on single year data (2010)

• 2,752,059 Illinois residents volunteered 378.5 million hours of service through or for a nonprofit or community organization in 2010.
  
  
• Service also takes place informally when people work with neighbors to address or fix a community issue. In 2010, 6.8 percent of Illinois residents volunteered informally, totaling approximately 683,775 individuals.
  
  
• In Illinois, more than 86,000 people participate in national service each year through 2,570 national service projects and programs. This year, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) will commit more than $30,000,000 to support the national service initiatives (Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and other programs) in Illinois.

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