Serving the Volunteer Centers of Michigan

Howdy!

Matthew Reaume here, and I’m glad to be back on the LeaderCorps Blog! I was privileged enough to serve on the Michigan’s AmeriCorps LeaderCorps from 2008-2010 as part of the ACE (Alumni and Citizenship Engagement) team. In that time I served with Huron Pines AmeriCorps, and as a VISTA with the Michigan Community Service Commission. This year, I am serving as VISTA Leader with the Volunteer Centers of Michigan (VCM), supporting a fantastic team of VISTAs dedicated to increasing the capacity of Volunteer Centers in Grand Rapids, Petoskey, and Lenawee.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar, Volunteer Centers are organizations dedicated to matching community volunteers to appropriate service opportunities. While some Centers stand alone as their own 501(c)3, many times they are housed within existing organizations such as the local United Way.

What makes a Volunteer Center so unique is the ability of the organization to leverage local partnerships to identify specific community needs and the unique desires and skills of residents who wish to volunteer. This process ensures that the right volunteers are consistently matched with the right opportunities to serve, contributing to higher quality service, satisfaction, volunteer retention rates, and most importantly, impact.

VCM VISTAs are responsible for enhancing the capacity of Volunteer Centers to effectively engage youth, volunteers age 55 and over, highly-skilled volunteers, volunteer leaders, and develop programs that streamline community collaboration through the implementation of regional volunteer project calendars. In addition, VISTAs also leverage resources for their organizations, conduct volunteer management training to nonprofit partners, and collaborate with other national service programs to implement National Days of Service projects.

My role as a VISTA Leader is to provide ongoing support to the VISTA program by developing training content, providing resources and one-on-one guidance, as well as implement volunteer management best practices internally for replication. The most rewarding aspect of being a VISTA Leader has to be the opportunity to cultivate new and inspired leaders in the field of social justice. Every day I am impressed with the impact that results from the dedicated service of this team of highly motivated and caring individuals.

Currently, I am in the midst of recruiting young men and women to join our effort for the program’s next fiscal year. Volunteer Centers of Michigan was awarded a grant through the HandsOn Network to support five AmeriCorps VISTA members. Host sites will be located in: Detroit (x2), Port Huron, Flint and Niles. The Volunteer Centers of Michigan was also awarded five slots from the Corporation for National and Community Service to host VISTA members in the following locations: Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Petoskey, Kalamazoo, and Sault St. Marie. VISTA members are being recruited to begin their year of service in November.

For more information about the Volunteer Centers of Michigan and our VISTA program, please visit www.mivolunteers.org. Don’t forget to “like” us facebook by visiting www.facebook.com/Volunteer.Centers.Michigan.