Recruitment Fun

Part of my job as AmeriCorps*VISTA Leader is recruiting other VISTA's and that is what I am currently doing. I am recruiting for 3 placements. Washington United Church of Christ in Cincinnati Ohio is one of them. I have recruited for them several times and I think it is an AWESOME organization. Basically they want someone to do grant research and volunteer recruitment and management for them. It will be a great working environment for someone to work in. The people are great there and the site supervisor is the Pastor of the church. She is a hard working diligent lady and I admire her greatly.

Another place I am currently recruiting for is Hamilton Living Water Ministries in Hamilton Ohio. This organization has gone far in helping inter city youth in Hamilton Ohio. Basically they want someone to do volunteer recruitment/management, Social Media research and to create profiles on social media links such as Facebook & Twitter (can you imagine getting paid to research Facebook and Twitter and posting on them?). They also want someone to do grant research and in-kind donation research. This organization has never had a VISTA before but they have gone far and over come some great obstacles in their community. They were recently  a center of focus of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks and the Corporation of National Community Service and the Mayors office of Hamilton Ohio. They made front page of the Journal News when all the big wigs and even the Mayors office came to tour their facility. They were also a Summer Feeding Site last summer and received 3 summer VISTA's. Now for the first time they are going to get an AmeriCorps*VISTA for a whole year! which is very exciting for this little organization. We are going to have a service project there tomorrow for our 9/11 day of service. Yes I know tomorrow is only 9/10 but 9/11 is Saturday and since our members get enough Saturday work time we try to do things during the normal work week. If members would like to participate in a service project on 9/11 they are more than welcome to. Anyway the AmeriCorps*VISTA members in SW Ohio are going to go to Hamilton Living Water ministry to help clean up an old school that they recently acquired to use for their program. We are going to spend the day cleaning up broken glass painting and cleaning up the playground area. Yay! The kids in that area will have a nice clean place to play which is awesome.

Another place I am recruiting for is Freestore Foodbank Power Pack Program. This program is located on Tennessee Ave in Bond Hill Cincinnati. The Freestore Foodbank is one of the 12 Foodbanks that are members of The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks which is the largest anti hunger charity in Ohio. The Freestore Foodbank Power Pack program is all about feeding kids. This program targets "at risk" children and provides them with a small bag of food that is slipped into their backpacks on Fridays. We find that kids tend to do better in school when they have a full belly. Basically the VISTA they are looking for will help to Expand and sustain the Power Pack weekend food program for children in urban and rural Freestore Foodbank counties. This person will help inform organizations and schools about the program and give them information about it and answer any questions they have. The will also be recruiting/managing volunteers that will drive and deliver the food bags to the schools and organizations. Another thing this member will do is grant research and writing to find cash donations to support the program. Freestore Foodbank covers Hamilton, Clermont, Brown, Adams, Scioto, Pike, Highland and Clinton counties.

These are all great places to work and they are all helping the community in unique ways. But as excited I am about each placing, I also get the joy of calling every single person who applies and telling them about the position. So needless to say my days are filled with talking and saying basically the same thing over and over. Sometimes I consider recording myself and just playing it back for the next person who is interested in the position. Of course I would never do that. I like giving individual attention to each applicant and to the sites themselves. I figure they deserve it since they are basically going to sign their lives away for a year of service making very little income. After working a 8 or 9 hour day working on recruitment I go home and collapse in the bed or the recliner for at least an hour before I can even think about doing anything else.

If you are reading this blog post and you are interested in the positions mentioned above please feel free to go to http://www.americorps.gov and fill out the application and I will be giving you a call or an email or both on the same day. All of these positions have until October 1 to get someone placed and all the paperwork turned in so there isn't much time to even think about the position just act.

Sounds a bit crazy but if you are like me and have a passion to help people and non-profit organizations you don't need to think.