CPTV - United Ways Focus on Volunteerism

Valley United Way is very pleased to be taking part in a new initiative, The Power ofGiving: Stories of Volunteerism, currently being presented by Connecticut Public Television. Valley United Way has long been a leader in promoting volunteerism in the Valley and established its own Volunteer Center in the early '90's. It was also one of the first United Ways in the entire country to adopt the Volunteer Solutions on-line tool as a means of making it easy for volunteers to find opportunities in the community.

CPTV had a major success in 2008 when they conducted a "volunteer-a-thon" instead of a pledge drive as part of their Connecting Our Communities initiative. They partnered with United way 2-1-1 to assist with the numerous calls received. This year, they are expanding on those efforts with "The Power of Giving: Stories of Volunteerism" effort. They were working with United Way of Connecticut when Rick Porth head of United Way of Connecticut called me seeking my input as I am currently serving as Chair of the CPO Council of United Ways in the state. I was enthused about the prospect, and Rick invited me to a meeting with CPTV representatives. However, I couldn't make the meting, and that was a good thing as I sent Pat Tarasovic, our Volunteer Center Director instead. Pat is our resident expert on volunteerism and the perfect person for the CPTV people to speak to meet. That meeting went extremely well and we bought in as a local United Way.

Last week CPTV representatives came to our state CPO meeting to discuss the partnersip which was endorsed unanimously by the CPO Council. On a side note - Nancy Bauer, who was one of the CPTV representatives driving the project on their end is an Oxford resident and a former student on mine from my earlier years as a teacher at St. Michael School in Derby - though we won't say how long ago that was!

The full story is on our website, but we are fully supportive of this effort and our own continuing efforts to encourage volunteerism by making it easier for both potential volunteers and agencies needign their services to make a match.