America Responds With Love® welcomes you to consider volunteering your time to help our non-profit organization help people truly in need throughout the United States.
Education Program Volunteer Positions
Respond With Love Employment Enhancement Volunteer Community Service Project
Goals:
To encourage 15 non-profit organizations and governmental entities to participate in the Respond With Love® Education Program of America Responds With Love® by creating 15 small libraries in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin during Year 2009. These Respond With Love® Libraries would be designed to help people truly in need in the Great Lakes Region.
Concept:
To utilize more than 30,000 books that were donated to America Responds With Love to help educate people truly in need in the United States. The books were considered excess inventory and would have been thrown away. Instead, they have been sorted in a temporary location for eventual placement in 125 small libraries throughout the country.
The Respond With Love Library - Clarendon began with 250 books donated by America Responds With Love. Today, this small library (the first Respond With Love Library) includes several thousand books. Clarendon is a small town in a rural area (1/4 of Warren County is a national forest). Within this community of about 560 residents, more than half of the residents are members of low or moderate income households. While the community has been "overlooked" by others, Clarendon has a strong community spirit.
Each Respond With Love Library will initially include 500 books, half of which will come from America Responds With Love. A variety of books will be placed in each library, including books for children as well as teenagers, fiction books and novels, and non-fiction books dealing with subjects such as science, history, health, pets, travel, and other areas of interest.
Respond With Love Libraries will be able to be placed within public facilities, including community centers, parks, schools, and other public facilities, as well as sites that are open to the general public. These libraries will also be able to be located within existing libraries so as to bring additional books into communities that have existing library structures, but lack budgets for books.
Participating organizations will be expected to pay a program service fee of $1,000 or $2,500 to cover the related program and logistics costs of America Responds With Love.
To encourage that each library will be sustainable, participating communities will also each match the donation of books from America Responds With Love by donating an additional 250 books (new, if possible; gently used, if appropriate). A rubber stamp will be provided for each community to designate that these 250 additional books were donated for public purposes and are not for sale. Much like the situation in Clarendon, it is likely that the participating communities will donate more than 250 books for these libraries.
Who We Are:
America Responds With Love, Inc. is a national 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides products and services to people truly in need in communities throughout the United States. A few examples of its activities include housing more than 103,000 people in emergency need when no other resources were available, planting more than 1 million flower bulbs to enhance the environment, and providing diapers and other basic necessities to families of military veterans as well as others truly in need. From the Iron Range of Minnesota to the Piedmont of North Carolina, from large cities like Los Angeles to small towns like Lucedale (Mississippi), and from the foothills of the Alleghenies in northwest Pennsylvania to the Gulf Coast of Louisana, many communities have benefitted from the activities of America Responds With Love.
Requirements:
18 Years of Age or older.
High School Graduate.
Citizen of the United States of America.
Ability to pass a criminal background check.
Skills Needed::
Ability to communicate clearly in standard English through the telephone.
Ability to read the English language
Ability to write text in Word documents in an efficient manner.
Ability to prepare databases in Excel spreadsheets in an efficient manner.
Ability to navigate the internet in an efficient manner.
Ability to be a self-starter.
Ability to work independently.
Ability to manage your time.
Ability to be detail-oriented.
Ability to be organized.
Ability to be disciplined.
Previous Helpful Employment Background:
Business-to-Business Sales
Librarian
Researcher
Retail Store Management
School Administrator
Social Worker
Teacher
Equipment Needed by Volunteer:
Computer (desktop or laptop) that has access to the internet and to a printer.
Telephone and telephone service to receive and make telephone calls.
Supervision:
Volunteer community service will be done from your home or from a place of your choosing.
All prospective non-profit organizations and governmental entities will be reviewed and approved by America Responds With Love prior to initial contact.
All communications to non-profit organizations and governmental entities will be reviewed and approved by America Responds With Love prior to disbursement.
All news articles to news dissemination sources will be reviewed and approved by America Responds With Love prior to disbursement.
All text and photographs for inclusion on the internet will be reviewed and approved by America Responds With Love prior to being placed on websites.
Team Approach:
Each participating individual will be part of a team of three people focused on the same community service project. These individuals will coordinate their joint efforts to achieve the goals in an efficient manner.
Schedule:
Hours will be set by volunteers in consultation with America Responds With Love.
Volunteer community service will include 20 to 30 hours each week during the hours of 8 AM and 8 PM during Mondays through Fridays for a 3 to 4 month time period. The time limit is subject to review by America Responds With Love.
The specific schedule will take into account the fact that both telephone and electronic communications will need to be done during regular office hours of 9 AM to 5 PM.
Potential Skills To Be Learned:
Confidence:
You’ll learn to build confidence through your community service efforts.
Education:
You’ll learn how to educate people through the re-utilization of books. You’ll learn how excess inventory of products could be utilized to help enhance the environment.
Electronic Communications:
You’ll learn how to prepare and send professional email communications, including attachments such as word processing documents, database spreadsheets, and photographs. You’ll learn how to prepare pages detailing the Respond With Love Libraries on Facebook, MySpace, and other electronic forms of communications. You’ll learn how to prepare a personal page on Facebook highlighting your search for a permanent job. You’ll create the components a YouTube video highlighting your skills, your community service efforts, and the type of job that you’re seeking.
Interpersonal Skills:
You’ll learn how to communicate in a professional manner with a variety of types of individuals as you coordinate efforts to create Respond With Love Libraries.
Organizational Skills:
You’ll learn how to coordinate different activities to create Respond With Love Libraries. These accomplishments will be examples of your success at bringing people together to achieve results.
Patience:
You’ll learn that the achievements you seek will not come immediately. Perseverance, though, will likely result in successes.
Public Speaking:
You’ll be given opportunities to speak at public meetings to discuss your community service efforts. You’ll learn how to prepare a brief speech that highlights your efforts to help America Responds With Love and how you’re hoping to gain new permanent employment in the career area of your choice.
Sales Skills:
You’ll learn how to sell intangible ideas to people. You’ll learn how to encourage people to consider different ways to work together to create a library. You’ll learn not to take a “no” or a “no answer” as a personal statement about you. You’ll learn that the “no” and the “no answer” responses are more common than the “yes” responses. You’ll learn that sometimes, you will not be successful in your activities.
Teamwork:
You’ll learn to work together with others to succeed in common goals.
Written Communications:
You’ll prepare weekly reports detailing your community service activities. You’ll prepare a presentation detailing the accomplishments achieved through your efforts.
Enhancements to Job Search Campaign:
Your resume will be placed on the website of America Responds With Love.
After the initial 60 days of community service, a webpage will be placed on the website of America Responds With Love to highlight your specific accomplishments in community service for the non-profit organization. A news release will be issued by America Responds With Love announcing the webpage. This news release will be targeted to news publications, news broadcast outlets, and news internet sites that focus on your chosen career area. There is no guarantee that the news release will be printed, broadcast, or streamed.
After the initial 90 days of community service, a YouTube video will be created to highlight your specific accomplishments in community service for the non-profit organization. A news release will be issued by America Responds With Love announcing the YouTube video. This news release will be targeted to news publications, news broadcast outlets, and news internet sites that focus on your chosen career area. There is no guarantee that the news release will be printed, broadcast, or streamed.
Severance Notice:
You’ll provide two weeks (10 business days) notice to America Responds With Love when you secure permanent employment. This is to allow a smooth transfer of volunteer community service activities to others within America Responds With Love.
You’ll coordinate with others within America Responds With Love during those two weeks (10 business days) of transition.
How To Apply:
If you're interested in volunteering with America Responds With Love, please contact the non-profit organization
America Responds With Love
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