Ready To Go Service Projects

Ready-to-Go Service Projects

This ready-to-go tool will help youth groups find meaningful ways to connect and make a difference in their communities through service-learning. Practical and interactive activities will help youth consider the connection between faith and service, discover the ways they are uniquely designed to serve, and explore service project ideas. It also profiles activities and conversation starters to help you tap into the power of service-learning for building character, challenging perceptions, and shaping leaders. It’s easy for a youth leader to scan and it’s flexible enough to use with diverse groups from middle school to college. Part One: The Basics What you need to know about service-learning – the definition, the benefits, the process, and how to make the move from volunteer service to service-learning. Part Two: Readying Your Hands 17 easy-to-use activity plans to help youth realize the value of service, discover what scripture says about serving others, identify what gifts each person brings to the group, and begin to explore the community. Part Three: Hands in Action 17 topical issues that include sample service project ideas, reflection questions, prayers, scriptures, stories about youth in service, and resources for further study. Find our more about the book, the authors, and training opportunities at www.theassetedge.net.

Library Volunteers

Volunteers are one of the most overlooked and underused resources available to nonprofits and other organizations. This guide will help find willing volunteers in the community and utilize their skills in a way that benefits the volunteer as well as the organization. Overseeing volunteers can be a daunting task. On top of all of the other duties library staff are typically responsible for, creating a volunteer program from scratch can seem nearly impossible. The work doesn’t stop once the program is created: volunteers have to be trained and retained; job duties have to be written, assessed, and refreshed; the benefits of the program need to be documented and weighed. While “volunteer coordinator” is easily a full-time job, it rarely is in the library or nonprofit world. Anything that can make volunteer management easier on library and nonprofit staff will benefit everyone involved. Library Volunteers: A Practical Guide for Librarians covers every aspect of volunteer programs, from creating, to recruiting, to retaining and keeping the opportunities fresh and appealing. It has information pertaining to elementary age, teenage, and adult volunteers, including innovative and unique volunteer positions that can be offered to them. The book covers both school and public library settings, but the information provided can be adapted slightly to benefit any organization that has a need for volunteer help. It looks beyond the scope of the library to include information on outreach and partnering with community organizations to provide volunteer opportunities to library patrons and volunteers on a broader scale. It is a complete handbook for library and nonprofit employees to use to solve any volunteer issue they might have.

General Services Administration's Economic Recovery Role