GENESEE CO. -- The following is a message from Resource Genesee:
Resource Genesee, which has served as the Volunteer Center for Genesee County for more than a decade, has been awarded a grant for $47,713 from the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC). The grant will be used to strengthen the work of the Volunteer Center and five volunteer organizations that are partnering in the grant.
Resource Genesee will work to strengthen the efforts of key partners striving to provide more food and healthier food to the needy. Their goal is to help ensure that the North End Soup Kitchen’s services are sustained, to strengthen the work of the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and to help more Genesee County residents connect to community gardens where they will learn modern gardening techniques and how to prepare fresh vegetables. Resource Genesee will work with MSU Extension and Ruth Mott Foundation to strengthen the edible flint collaborative, an initiative that promotes community gardening and more. The Retired & Senior Volunteer Program will provide skilled older adults to assist with volunteer management and recruitment to enhance the above projects.
“This funding comes at exactly the right time for Genesee County’s volunteer efforts,” said Julia Zaher, director of Volunteer Services at Resource Genesee. “We are all working on slim budgets to meet huge needs. The work we’ll do through this grant will help us to streamline much of that work.”
The Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) is awarding $299,266 in Volunteer Michigan grants to seven volunteer centers across the state. The funds are provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Volunteer Generation Fund (VGF). The Corporation received $4 million in federal funds to distribute to state service commissions across the country to better recruit, manage, and retain volunteers to address pressing social challenges – as well as to enhance the work of nonprofit organizations. The MCSC received $486,913, the largest grant of any state service commission in the country.
The MCSC is granting some of its VGF funds as part of its new Volunteer Michigan initiative, an effort to increase the number of volunteers addressing health and public safety issues in local communities and statewide.
Grantees will focus on increasing the number of volunteers participating in activities focused on health and public safety issues, volunteer retention, replicable collaborative models for volunteer mobilization, volunteer participation on National Days of Service, and engagement of highly-skilled volunteers. Grantees will begin using the funds in December 2010 for an initial12-month program cycle. Based on the availability of funds, there is a possibility for an additional two years of funding.
Volunteer Michigan funds will also support the development and implementation of HandsOn Connect, an online volunteer management tool that will enable volunteer centers to recruit, manage, and track volunteer engagement.
Volunteer Michigan’s six additional grantees are Allegan County United Way and Volunteer Center, United Way of Ionia County/Volunteer Connections, Volunteer Center of Greater Kalamazoo, Volunteer Center of Southwest Michigan, Volunteer Lenawee/ Lenawee Community Foundation, and Volunteer Muskegon.
