Last month, Cohort 6 met for their third peer convening at The California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities. At this point in the HALO Award program year, the six organizations are well into the creation of their volunteer management plans. These multi-year strategic plans are designed to increase the capacity of the organizations through the improvement and strengthening of their volunteer programs.
During this session, participants were guided through a discussion to identify potential risks in implementing their volunteer management plans, as well as specific ways to minimize and address these potential barriers proactively. Additionally, three organizations presented “Spotlight Cases,” in which an organization has the opportunity to “spotlight” a specific issue or challenge in their volunteer program and then receive feedback and suggestions from their peers to address the concern. These peer-to-peer learning opportunities are highly valuable to the Cohort.
Danette Martin, Program Officer, Corporation for National & Community Service
In the afternoon, Danette Martin, Program Officer at the Corporation for National & Community Service, joined the convening to share about the Corporation’s AmeriCorps VISTA Program, a national service program that supports efforts to alleviate poverty by engaging individuals, 18 years and older, in a year of full-time service with a sponsoring organization. Danette explained the upcoming application process and highlighted the potential impact of mobilizing AmeriCorps volunteers to support organizational capacity and growth. This presentation was well-timed as Cohort 6 continues to refine their volunteer management plans. The intimate setting allowed participants to ask Danette organization-specific questions on ways they could utilize AmeriCorps volunteers as additions to their volunteer management plans.
For more information about the AmeriCorps VISTA program and the recently released 2018 Request for Concept Papers and application process, please visit the Resources page on the HALO Award website. From there you can access information about individual programs, application deadlines, and Danette Martin’s direct contact information.