Out-of-work residents turn to volunteer service

From the Marin Independent Journal, Sunday October 10th, 2010

When Mike Moore moved to San Rafael from Sacramento last year, he was unfazed by what he thought would be a brief job search."I was up early every morning going to job websites, going to job fairs thinking it was just a temporary thing," said Moore, 44.
By the summer, he became discouraged.
"Weeks turned to months, and I found that I was kind of just hanging out and not really doing anything constructive," he said.
Then Moore volunteered to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity, and he taught English to immigrants through another nonprofit program. He's been volunteering ever since, most recently as an after-school tutor in Marin City. The experience has inspired him to pursue a new career in counseling, and he is taking community college classes with an eye toward applying to a master's program.
Moore is one of hundreds of Marin residents who have become volunteers since the beginning of the economic downturn. Nonprofit and government agencies say they have been flooded with people looking to refresh their skills, update their resumes or simply get out of the house. Across the county, many organizations report volunteer activity has increased anywhere from 20 to 50 percent - at one agency, applications increased more than threefold - with many new volunteers drawn in by joblessness or under-employment.
"I've been here 30 years and I've not seen anything like this," said Joan Brown, who coordinates public sector volunteers for Marin County.

Brown said volunteer interest is at least triple its level before the downturn, and she receives hundreds of applications from people who have lost their jobs.
"We just don't have enough opportunities for all the people who are interested," Brown said. "There are really outstanding, qualified people who I may not even be able to place."
Victoria Snyder, 30, of Mill Valley, was placed recently as a volunteer attorney in the Marin County counsel's office, working on cases involving children who have been abused or neglected. The work matched her experience at a school for emotionally disturbed children.
"I was really attracted to this area of law," she said.
Snyder could not find a position in the legal profession after she graduated from the City University of New York School of Law more than a year ago, and at first she worked in entry-level jobs. She decided it would be better to work in her field even if it meant not getting paid and moving back in with her family to save money.
"To be employable I needed some legal work experience in 2010," she said. "One of the other benefits is just meeting other attorneys. It's been really wonderful because all of the other attorneys that I've met are warm and friendly and are eager to explain how things work."
For some people, volunteering can lead to a paid job. Anthony Lum was a civil engineer and project designer for BKF Engineers in Redwood City until he was laid off last year. He said he applied to nearly 100 jobs but could not get re-hired.
Lum, who lives in Milbrae, first volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and then learned that many Bay Area public agencies use volunteer engineers. He found a position in Marin County's public works department.
"Initially, from a selfish standpoint, I wanted to have some sort of public sector experience on my resume," Lum said.
Lum helps design projects such as guardrails and sidewalks in the unincorporated county. After two months his position turned into a paid job - albeit one without benefits - and he hopes it will be the beginning of a career in the public sector.
"You feel like you are improving the quality of life for the public," he said.
Not all new volunteers are driven by career goals. Other factors include the introduction of mandatory community service in public schools and the retirement of baby boomers who now have more free time, said Linda Davis, CEO of the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership, a volunteer placement agency.
"More and more people are rising up, teaching younger people about volunteering," Davis said. "Sometimes, things happen in the news that make people want to volunteer, like a disaster," such as the Haiti earthquake in January.
All of those factors have contributed to a huge increase - nearly 50 percent from July 2009 to July 2010 - in volunteers placed through the volunteer center. As those volunteers have fanned out across the county, absorbing them has proven difficult for some groups.
Nadine James-Ward, volunteer coordinator for Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, said the organization has turned away dozens of extra volunteers since starting its first Marin County project - it now has three projects - earlier this year.
"We always have a waiting list of people who want to come volunteer," James-Ward said.
But volunteers can also provide much-needed help to an organization, especially at a time when the economy and cuts to government jobs and services have increased the need for charity work, said Mary Kay Sweeney, executive director of Homeward Bound Marin. The homeless shelter and service provider has used about 200 new volunteers in the past year and a half - out of a total 1,200 volunteers - including kitchen workers, gardeners, office administrators and even psychotherapists.
"They're the lifeblood of any organization," Sweeney said.
Even with the recent increase in volunteers, agencies say they expect to see a still greater need for their services if cuts are not restored. In particular, they anticipate a greater need for volunteers to assist the county's growing population of seniors.
Furthermore, they see a need to better engage seniors as volunteers themselves, because baby boomers might not be drawn in by the traditional volunteer process. This week the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership is launching a new drive to recruit experienced volunteers age 50 and older.
"Marin has a fast-growing aging community," the center's Davis said. "Human beings naturally want to give back."
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
- The Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership connects volunteers with organizations and projects throughout Marin County. For information, visit www.cvnl.org or call 479-5710.
- Civic Center Volunteers places people in volunteer positions in county government. For information, visit http://ow.ly/2QGF7 or call 499-7407.
Contact Will Jason via e-mail at wjason@marinij.com

Habitat for Humanity

Wow! We are almost coming to the end for the Habitat for Humanity house in Novato. Time flies when you're having fun...

It's amazing how much labor actually goes into building a house (or technically, rebuilding a house). Since early November, nearly 176 Flex volunteers have contributed 1,408 hours of labor. That's a lot of blood, sweat and tears; actually, it's just a lot sweat. Thanks to the experience and great support from Habitat's site manager, Ryan, volunteer days were always fun and safe.

Volunteers did just about every job, from tearing out the roof to pouring concrete to bringing the rose bushes back to life. Yet, there's one task that just about every volunteer ended up doing at one point or another: Digging. Whether it was digging up the old driveway, digging holes for the fence, or digging a ditch for the water line -- just about every time I went out, without fail, I dug.

And I became a mighty good digger because of it. I would show off my calloused hands like trophies, having slayed one more ditch for the greater good. I dare you to take your stress out on a ditch -- the ditch will always win.

I am almost sad that this house is just about finished. Well, no, I am really happy that this great family now has a home of their own (Alejandra and Miguel pictured above). But I will miss going out there, learning something new, building something new, watching an old house progress day to day into a new home. And what will I do with myself if I can't dig?

A wise man once said: there's always a ditch/hole/driveway to dig somewhere. Indeed, Habitat has already started work on a new development in San Rafael. That means there is hope after all...I will dig again. Thank God. And thanks to the 176 Flex volunteers who came out to do thier part for Habitat for Humanity in the last 6 months. Your ditch will not soon be forgotten.