Volunteering

Hi All,

Did you know that volunteering in the United States is on the decline?  Well, it is... Check out this article from Newsweek back in October.  The article/entry/post is titled, 'Volunteering in America is on the Decline'.

With that thought in mind, I decided to write a blog entry about volunteering.  Some websites that readers can visit to find volunteer options include: Serve.gov, Volunteermatch, Long Island.com, 1800Volunteer (seriously) and Long Island Volunteer Center. 

The Long Island Volunteer Center (LIVC) is an all-volunteer agency working to provide support to, and promote and advocate for, volunteer service on Long Island.  It is a well-known, volunteer organization - and it has a wonderfully useful website to help volunteers find volunteer positions.  Click on this link to find more information about LIVC.

Click on this link to 'Find a Volunteer Opportunity'.  Users can search by keyword, schedule type, zip code and distance.  Or you can just search the listings.  Note that users can sort column headers.  As a result you can search by title of the volunteer opportunity, organization name, location of volunteer opportunity, time, distance and frequency.  Which all makes searching for just the right volunteer opportunity painless, easy and fast!

Finally, if you are in the library and would like a hard-copy of the brochure 'Places People Can Volunteer' you can come to the Reference Desk or the Children's Room and we'll give you a copy. It's a great volunteering resource.

Happy volunteering.

Regards,
Stu

What To Do This Weekend?

Hi All,

Just found this interesting article from the Farmingdale Patch.  The article is called 'The Weekender' and is a regular section in the Farmingdale Patch. Click here for the link.

Some of the things to do this weekend include: Farmingdale Chamber Annual Holiday Parade, Massapequa Park Turkey Trot, and Families Feeding Families.

On another note, you might consider going to the website, 'VolunteerMatch.org'. The site bills itself as 'Finding a cause that lights you up. Get in touch with a nonprofit that needs you.

Users can find volunteer opportunities in categories like 'Animals', 'Children and Youth', 'Education and Literacy', 'Environment', and 'Homeless and Housing'.  Users  can sort results by 'Distance', 'Event Date', and 'Date Posted'. 

When a particular volunteer opportunity is found information is included.  The opportunity title is included as is a brief summary of the volunteer opportunity.  Location is included, but more importantly, a 'Learn More' button is available.  When users click on this button you go to a new page which includes volunteer reviews of the opportunity, a map so you can get to the location and 3 special sections.  These sections are called 'Skills', 'Good Match For' and 'Requirement & Commitment'. Essentially these categories help the users decide whether or not this is a good volunteer opportunity. 

Users can narrow their search by using the search box at the left side of the page - basically this is just a keyword search.  In addition users can search by 'Cause Areas' and look for volunteering opportunities in areas like 'Arts & Culture', 'Children & Youth', 'Community', 'Education & Literacy', 'health & Medicine', 'Seniors' and more....

Finally, there are other ways to search - and ways to limit your search.  Ways to limit your search include 'Opportunities just for Kids', 'Opportunities just for People 55+', 'Opportunities for Teens', and more. 

So...as you can see, there are plenty of things to do this weekend - both in terms of entertainment and with respect to volunteering opportunities.

Enjoy the volunteering! Its a great experience.

Regards,
Stu

The Long Island Volunteer Center

Hi All,

The Long Island Volunteer Center (LIVC) has been helping folks with volunteer decisions since 1992. That's over 20 years of volunteer service to Long Island residents.  For a very comprehensive and inspirational history of the LIVC, click on this link.

So, what does the LIVC offer?  Indeed, great question...and boy, are you going to be delighted with all the features available on the site.

First off, users can find volunteer opportunities by typing in words that describe the volunteer situation they are looking for in the search box at the top of the page.   Users can type in city/state or zip code information in order to refine the search further.  Users can also enter the distance that they want to travel for the volunteer experience to take place.  So far, so good- and very, very helpful. A search using the terms 'hospital', '11735', and within 10 miles came up with 8 search results.  All results were relevant and comprehensive. Note that there is also an 'Advanced Search' that users can have an option to use - which is located under the search box on the homepage.

Once users click on a volunteer opportunity that they find interesting a new screen appears with information as varied as a website for even more information for the volunteer opportunity. Dates, times, location, opportunity leader, number of spots remaining for opportunity and option to sign up are all included on the 'Opportunity Detail' page. 

Volunteer opportunity searches can be saved and additional filters can be run to narrow down your search using the following limits: 'When Are You Available?', 'What Would You Like To Do?', 'Who Would You Like To Serve?', and 'Appropriate For...?'

At the top of the homepage, users can click on links to 'Special Events', 'Browse Organizations', 'Resources', 'Become a Member', and 'Find Local Opportunities'. All the links of which are helpful and well documented.

Note that the site is NOT just for Adults.  Users (read: parents....) can find available volunteer opportunities for students by using the 'Appropriate For...' link under the 'Additional Filters' box.  Categories include Children (Under 13 years old) and Young Adults (between 13 and 17 years old).  Other categories include Adults (18 years old to 54 years old) and Seniors (55 years old and up).

Finally, if users have any questions, the LIVC can be contacted by clicking on this link.

Enjoy the site - and I hope the volunteer experience you have is a fun and productive one!

Regards,
Stu

Volunteering Websites

Hi All,

Just found a great website for volunteering on Long Island.  Appropriately enough it is called 'Long Island Volunteer Center' and can be reached by clicking on this link or the title just mentioned.

So, just what is the LIVC? It is an all-volunteer agency the provides support to, and promotes, and advocates, for volunteer service on Long Island.  Click here for a brief history of the organization.

And of course, click on this link to find volunteer opportunities.

If you need o contact the LIVC, click on this link.  This next link is a list of organizations that actually entertain volunteers from LIVC.  This is a very long alphabetical list of organizations so you might have to scroll down a bit to get to the name of the organization you are looking for.

Finally, if you click on the name of the organization, you find an organization profile, a link, and the organizations address...great stuff to help you contact them!

Regards,
And here's to volutneering - what a great way to spend time!
Stu