Fall Volunteers Needed!

The new school semester is kicking off and volunteer recruitment is in full swing! Are you interested in becoming an afterschool volunteer or adult ESL tutor? Call us at 952.945.4163 today to get started!

The Win-Win of Senior Volunteering

Dr. Erwin Tan

This post originally appeared on the White House blog on July 15, 2011.

Pictured to the right: Dr. Erwin Tan, Director of Senior Corps at the Corporation for National and Community Service, leads a panel of senior volunteers at a U.S. Administration on Aging July 13, 2011.

On Wednesday July 12, 2011, I was honored to participate in a White House event on senior volunteerism and service. At the event, Melody Barnes, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, explained that seniors in service creates a “win-win” situation—communities benefit from the volunteers and the volunteers benefit from the act of serving.

Senior Corps is based on the premise that Americans 55 and older are a national resource that can be mobilized to serve communities across America. Through the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), Foster Grandparent Program, and Senior Companion Program– Senior Corps volunteers make communities safer, stronger, and healthier; and improve the lives of millions of our most vulnerable citizens. As Ms. Barnes put it, “Senior volunteers change communities.”

Today, Americans over 65 represent 13% of our population. By the year 2030, that number will be 20%. But while some may talk about how the aging of America is a problem to be solved, we at Senior Corps believe it an opportunity for both individuals and communities. Last year, more than 440,000 Senior Corps volunteers provided 98 million hours of service – estimated to be worth $2 billion. Senior Corps is part of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), a federal agency. The federal investment in national and community service allows our nation to address important national issues by empowering communities...

To read the rest of this blog post, please click the link below.
http://www.serve.gov/stories_detail.asp?tbl_servestories_id=603

Tutoring improves health and brain functions...for students AND volunteers!

Are you 55 or over?
Your life experience is needed!

When: Friday, August 5th 10am-12 noon
Where: Midtown Global Market, 920 E. Lake St.,Minneapolis


Less than 50% of Minneapolis students read at grade level by 8th grade. The good news: studies show volunteer tutors can improve a child’s success while decreasing their own risk of heart disease, increasing overall health and brain function.

RSVP of the Greater Twin Cities* is hosting a 55+ Meet & Greet for adults over the age of 55 interested in tutoring. Bring your friends, enjoy some light refreshments and learn more about local programs working to improve adult and child literacy in South Minneapolis! Reserve your spot today by calling Mary Jane Horton, RSVP Literacy Coordinator at 952.945.4163 or mhorton@voamn.org.

Community Peace Celebration - St. Paul

Looking for a fun volunteer opportunity next weekend? Ober Community Center in collaboration with community partners is hosting a Community Peace CElebration Friday, June 17th from 2-6p.m. Come check out the free food, games and entertainment as we celebrate this grassroots tradition of uniting the community around the common goal of peace and solidarity.

RSVP will be hosting a booth to encourage older adults to volunteer in their communities, so make sure to stop by the Senior Tent. If you are interested in volunteering to help out our partner organization, ACES, as they organize games and activities for the children and youth in attendance at the celebration, please call 952.945.4163 and we will get you connected!

Primetime Living Expo

This past week RSVP attended the Primetime Living Expo at Mystic Lake Casino. Thousands of older adults across the metro came to the expo to participate in workshops, health screenings, drawings, and performances. RSVP’s Pretty Good Players performed a few of their skits focused around challenging stereotypes of aging and 12 RSVP volunteers assisted Expo staff in registering visitors and handing out welcome bags. Our RSVP volunteers encouraged visitors to stop by RSVP’s booth to learn more about volunteer opportunities in their communities.

If you’re interested in helping represent RSVP as a volunteer at more special events and one time opportunities in the future, check out our special events phone line by calling 952.945.4111 to listen to a listing of events happening in your area!

Opportunity to help out one of our partner sites: The English Learning Center in S. Mpls!

Help ELC honor our students and volunteer teachers at our annual Spring Party on April 19 between 5-8:15pm. Some shifts may end earlier. If you enjoy meeting new people and tasting food from around the world join us as a greeter, kitchen helper or game leader.

· Greeters (2-3 people) has great customer service skills and is warm and inviting. You'll manage the welcome table and advise guests regarding social hour activities.



· Kitchen Helpers (2-3 people) will organize and oversee all incoming food brought in by students. Put your creative skills to the test in plate presentations. Also assist with buffet set-up and collecting dishes.



· Game Leaders (2-3 people) will assist at various stations as the rules master. Students have low-English proficiency and are unfamiliar with most of the games we’ll have available and will need help interpreting instructions and thinking of winning strategies.



Please let us know by 3pm on April 18 if you wish to participate. More details regarding your assignment will be discussed with Yer Lee, ELC's Volunteer Coordinator. You may contact her directly by phone at (612) 874-9963 x2 or e-mail yer@englishlc.org.

Come Support RSVP at the 50+ Primetime Living Spring Expo!

This year's ‎50+ Primetime Living Spring Expo is at Mystic Lake Casino on April 19th-20th, 9am-3pm!Come support RSVP as we encourage 50+ Primetime Expo visitors to get involved as volunteers in their communities! As a thank you to our volunteers, we want to offer FREE admission to you and a friend or family member! Call 952.945.4165 for your free tickets!
Follow this link to find out more about who will be presenting and performing at the Expo!
http://www.101expos.com/spPrimeTime/
Volunteers are needed to welcome visitors and direct them to our booth to find out more about volunteering! Call 952.945.4165 to find out more!

RSVP-Senior Corps Alert- March 2011

Dear RSVP Volunteers,

As you read this, our Federal Legislators are grappling with some of the largest budget deficits our great country has ever seen. They, actually WE, are faced with difficult and likely some painful decisions. We know we will all have to make sacrifices. And we know that there are likely areas that could be more efficient and financially prudent.

What we hope is that as these difficult choices are made, they are made based on; what is best for our communities, what most effectively leverages all of our available resources, and long range visions, rather than short term fixes. One area that we see evidenced daily as a cost efficient SOLUTION to meeting pressing community needs, is the power of volunteers. YOU are our countries greatest resource. And we are also painfully aware that volunteers, in the vast majority of cases, need a quality infrastructure and support system in order to maximize their impact. Ask anyone who has ever had a frustrating volunteer experience for proof of this.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is the Federal Agency that sponsors National Service programs including Americorps, RSVP, Senior Companions, Foster Grandparents, Learn and Serve and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). These programs mobilize thousands of volunteers across every state, every day. They provide the infrastructure to assure that these volunteers are able to serve in ways that address the greatest challenges, in cost effective and solution oriented ways. CNCS is one of the programs that was considered for complete defunding. Hopefully as you read this, CNCS is recognized and funded as a cost effective solution with a high return on investment.

Regardless of where the budget process is at, you can call or email your congressional representatives and legislators to let them know about the difference YOU make in your community as a volunteer. Tell them that our schools, food shelves, parks, libraries, aging citizens, veterans, virtually all members of our communities, are served by and benefit from the work of dedicated National Service Volunteers. Thank them for their support and service.

Keep in mind that the current Continuing Resolution ends April 8th:

Please call, fax, or write a letter to your representative and Senators Klobuchar and Franken outlining the following:

© You have been an RSVP volunteer at ______ (volunteer site) for how long________ and you volunteer _____hours per week.

© How does the community benefit from your volunteer service and the organization you volunteer with? (Include a story that illustrates the impact of your volunteer work on the community.)

© How do you personally benefit from participating in the RSVP program with your volunteer site?

© Ask them to save The Corporation for National and Community Service and its programs like RSVP.


Our Senators are: Al Franken 202-224-5641 and Amy Klobuchar 202-224-3244. Prefer email? Their websites have links for emailing them directly.



Your Representatives: Type in your zip code to find your local representative:

www.Votesmart.org

Sealing the Deal with Potential Volunteers

According to the Rule of Seven, “a prospect needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action and buy from you.” Once they take action though, you must be prepared to make the final sale. Let’s think about that in the sense of a potential volunteer. When a potential volunteer notices our marketing tools and they call us, are we effectively “sealing the deal” to get them connected with a volunteer opportunity? I have been with RSVP as an AmeriCorps VISTA for about seven months and this is something I struggle with. Quite a few times I have had a person call in to me after seeing our PSA in the paper or one of our flyers (note that they called me, meaning that they are obviously already interested); so I’d explain the program, send out an application in the mail, and wait, without hearing anything back. Was there something I could have done differently?

I found some helpful tips online. Tips for Volunteer Coordinators, Utilizing Your Most Valuable Resource. The tips seemed so obvious after reading them, but maybe I just needed to see them AGAIN. Two of the tips really stood out to me and warranted a deeper look.

1. Make it easy for people to volunteer.
2. Ask people to volunteer in areas they are passionate about.

Part of the reason the RSVP program exists is to eliminate the barriers that older adults have to volunteering, essentially what Tip #1 says. Here’s how:
• Have opportunities in the communities they live in.
• Work within their time availabilities.
• Prove that volunteering will be worth their time and that they will be making an impact on the community and the organization.
• Provide perks or deals to get people to volunteer (travel reimbursement, recognition events, trainings, etc.)

And here is how we cover Tip #2:
• Have opportunities that meet their many skills or interests.
• Give the opportunity to provide change in areas that are meaningful to them (grandchild’s school, environment, neighborhood clean-up, etc.)

I knew these were the things RSVP did, because I had been told, and because it’s on our flyer. But what did it mean? How were we actually doing all of the bulleted items above? I realized that (and it’s so obvious) I had to understand the product before I tried selling it! I had to get out in the community, do visits with our nonprofit partners, understand what types of positions they needed volunteers recruited for, and converse with my coworkers so I knew what they were doing as well.

Being a connector group for older adult volunteers and nonprofits in the community, you play a lot of phone tag. You have to get to know your volunteer, find a perfect volunteer opportunity for them, see if the opportunity is still available with our nonprofit partner, give them the volunteer’s information, and then follow up to see if it was a good match or if you need to find something else. Then once a good match is made, help the volunteer understand they are a volunteer at XYZ Agency, and they are also an RSVP member. Here are some things that we are doing to help make this work:

• Meeting with the potential volunteer in person. Getting to know them face to face and making them feel they are worth our time, because we are asking for theirs. This also helps make them feel like an RSVP member, not just a volunteer at the agency where they volunteer.
• Creating a universal application with our partner nonprofits. This way the volunteer doesn’t have to fill out an RSVP application and then fill out all the same stuff on an application for the agency they will be volunteering at.
• Using a call-log system to track the number of phone contacts it takes before a volunteer gets signed up with one of our partner nonprofits. Less is best!
• Having good, effective, “to the point” materials that highlight our program and the areas of great need in the community.

And before I let you go, here’s a tip I learned from my own experience (don’t judge, I’m sure I’m not the only one) which doesn’t need any further commenting: Follow up in a timely manner!
Danielle Schminkey
Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA)
RSVP and MAVA

RSVP's newest partnership with the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department

In 2009, the St. Paul Public School District reported that 49% of students are not reading at their grade level. Poverty and low academic achievement are strong indicators of delinquency and lack of workforce readiness. In 1995, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department created the Sheriff’s Youth Literacy Plus (SYLP) program with the goal to help overcome these barriers by focusing on early literacy skills. SYLP is an after school program that serves kindergarten through 12th grade students at McDonough Community Center in St. Paul. SYLP works with youth to improve their self esteem, reverse the trends of poverty and juvenile crime. These will in return build a stronger and healthier community. The students enrolled in this program have not had any trouble with the law and need your help to stay on track. Volunteers are needed to tutor, coordinate arts and crafts, supervise recreational activities, organize field trips and recruit volunteers. Become a part of the movement to build a stronger community in East St. Paul. Please contact Amy Fjellman at afjellman@voamn.org or 651.470.7416 for information on how to get started.

Start the year off right! Help close the achievement gap by becoming a tutor with RSVP!

Do you live in Mpls, St. Paul or the surrounding suburbs? Local non profits and afterschool programs are looking for tutors willing to engage in the lives of children as they work in partnership with teachers, parents and community members to target students performing below grade level. Community partners want RSVP volunteers 55+ to share their expertise and passion for improving literacy skills as they build meaingful intergenerational relationships as mentors.

Call Mary Jane Horton, RSVP Literacy Coordinator, for more information about getting connected in YOUR community as a volunteer helping to improve literacy in Minnesota!