Connecting willing volunteers with service opportinuties in Jackson County
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Connecting willing volunteers with service opportinuties in Jackson County |
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The story of Volunteer Jackson County (VJC)
What is (VJC) Volunteer Jackson County? Volunteer Jackson County is a free service designed to help connect willing volunteers with service opportunities available in Jackson County. VJC maintains a listing of local volunteer needs on its website, www.volunteerjacskoncounty.org. Volunteers can search the listing and obtain contact information for the services that interest them. What is Its Purpose? To build a stronger community by helping local organizations find the volunteer support they need and by helping volunteers find the right activity for them. How did it Get Started? VJC is the result of a project started by local residents attending the Leadership Jackson County Course. Those individuals are Chris Marks, Wade Klingler, Betsy Cornett and Andrea Zimmer. We (the group listed above) came up with the idea in January 2007 as we met in the Community Agency Building in Seymour. We were there to learn about the history of that building and the formation of the Community Health Center. As we listened to various agencies present there stories, there were two points they all seemed to have in common. 1. Most of the organizations were in great need of more volunteer help. 2. By working together and joining under one roof they were able to help each other and became stronger both individually and as a team. These 2 main points caused us as a group to come up with the idea of trying to help the organizations find the volunteers they need by creating a single source where people could see the volunteer needs of the community. So the idea of VJC was born. At first we thought we would compile a list of the services in the community as well as list the volunteer needs they each have. We soon discovered that a list of community services already existed. However, it did not contain any information about the volunteer needs of these services so our objective changed slightly and became more focused and we decided to only list services that had volunteer needs. Who Does VJC Benefit? VJC benefits three (3) main groups: 1. Organizations that are looking for volunteers such as: · United Way · Community Learning Center · Drug Free Council · READ Jackson County · Etc. 2. Volunteers that are looking for the right opportunity to serve. · Faith-Based Organizations · Corporate Service Coordinators · Retired Individuals · Service Clubs · School Counselors · Private Citizens · Anyone Interested in Community Service 3. Individuals receiving help from the various organizations and volunteers. · Families · Children · Teenagers · Adults · Parents · Individuals with Special Needs · Anyone Assisted by the Services Involved There are many organizations in our community that rely heavily upon volunteers to keep their programs and services running. VJC was created to help such organizations find volunteers willing to help them. At the same time, many good-hearted individuals would like to help make our community even better and are willing to help but are not familiar with the various needs and opportunities available. VJC helps bring these groups together and ultimately everyone involved benefits. |
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