About 40 like-minded people gathered in the gym at Lower Lake High School Saturday with one goal in mind: fostering community involvement and volunteerism. The volunteer summit provided community-minded people an opportunity to network and share ideas for building a better place to live.
Terry Fries provided his expertise related to managing volunteers and offered insight into what volunteers want. Participants then broke into groups of like-interest where they brainstormed and shared their ideas. The summit concluded with a summarization of those ideas.
Participants included many community leaders representing such organizations as Lake County Community Action Agency, Highlands Senior Center, Habitat for Humanity, Community Care HIV/AIDS Project (CCHAP) the Salvation Army. Many local educators were also present.
Leslie Lovejoy described the effort as “neighbors helping neighbors” where a structure is created that trains people to be volunteers. “We need to show the uniqueness of Lake County,” she said. “We need to be able to say ?Yes, Lake County is a culture of volunteers.””
Topics that were identified as important by participants included such concepts as creating a volunteer referral network and ways to recruit volunteers. “Networking, this is so important,” a participant said. “Anytime you tell somebody about an opportunity you are networking.
Participants discussed how to keep volunteers motivated to keep them energized while preventing volunteer burnout. They discussed how to assist nonprofit organizations and developing a system to match volunteers with appropriate organizations according to their interests and skills.
Participants also discussed how to reach out to the community to recruit more volunteers. They shared ideas for outreach opportunities, identifying various community events.
Making a list to identify things that keep people from volunteering was also suggested as was making a list of “easy ways to help” that are simply enough for anybody to do.
Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Bill MacDougall led a discussion for assisting and fostering activities for youth. He said volunteers could provide opportunities for youth through after school instruction. “We need to coordinate with different volunteers who are willing to donate,” he said. “If you”re a dance teacher, maybe you could hold dance classes after school, etc.”
Finally, the group discussed what they can do to keep the effort going, which they agreed begins with building a volunteer referral network.
Volunteer opportunities in the community are abundant. Those interested in donating their time and skills can call such places as the Highlands Senior Center, Lake County Community Action Agency, any school or church, Clearlake City Hall or the police department to find out where their contributions are needed most.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
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