Thank you to everyone who attended our annual Community Partner Forum and/or completed the annual partner Survey. Our team greatly appreciates all of your feedback and input! We incorporated your ideas into our staff planning retreat, influencing our strategic direction over the next three years as well as specific services we provide to you all this fiscal year.
Key aspects you have requested we implement as a part of our programming, and our plan to meet that need, is outlined below.
Neighboring
Information about how to connect to the neighboring initiative in more interactive ways. Austin Rowlader is meeting with City representatives to explore options for service connections within neighborhood associations, seeking to create more of a block party feel. He is looking to create one additional community garden this year connected to a neighborhood. HandsOn already actively works with the Northgate peace and Forgiveness Community Garden, Oregon School for the Deaf Community Garden, SESNA Community Garden, HandsOn Community Garden, and the Clockworks Community Garden downtown. There is also a Street Sweeping project in CANDO and Leaf-it Together in SESNA.
School Engagement
Service-learning options for creating interactive service for youth, in partnership with schools, is being offered in a series of presentations to schools as well as a part of the HandsOn Volunteer Management Training series in January. James Cutz is the HandsOn staff member leading this effort.
Flexible Project Program
It was clear that partners had many more questions about the Flex program after the forum. We hosted another forum on 10/29 for partners to learn how to implement their own Flex projects. Click here to view the information presented at that event. Megan Buchanan is the staff member in charge of this program.
Leverage HandsOn Resources
1) A Partner Toolkit has been drafted and will be shared with all of you via the partner section of the HandsOn website. A blog post will go out to you all sharing this resource in the near future. Please contact Khela Singer-Adams if you would like additional resources provided in this toolkit once it posts, as it will be easy to expand.
2) A resource has been created to share set calendar dates when we know we will be requesting managed projects. Click here for the resource and contact Melissa Gibler if you have any questions.
3) The HandsOn tool lending library is available for your use. It will be growing as donations and funding is secured. The check-out process and inventory list is available here. Contact Melissa Gibler if you have any questions.
4) The Volunteer Management Training topics have been set for this year based on your requests. This information will initially be provided in workshop trainings and informative blog posts. These will be provided by experts across our region. Click here for the list of topics and dates. Four weeks prior to each training a blog post will go out with a link to register for that training. We are also working to develop podcasts as well and will launch that next calendar year. Contact Khela Singer-Adams with questions.
Marketing
1) HandsOn has launched Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Please connect with us there, and share with your volunteers and co-workers as this will be a great way to join in the volunteer community conversation.
2) Our Partner blog contains volunteer management resources, how to leverage the HandsOn resources, requests for managed projects, and tips from experienced volunteer managers in the field.
3) Our Volunteer Blog contains information about how individuals can get involved and how they can connect with your needs. A specific topic you requested is information for our volunteer community about how to be a strong volunteer with basic questions and answers – James Cutz is working on this resource and it will be posting soon.
4) Melissa Gibler writes a bi-monthly article for the Statesman Journal spotlighting your needs.
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