volunteer coordinating
Volunteer Coordinator and Program Producer
Organization:
Malden Access TV VISTA Name:
Ilirjan Qirici
Program Start:
4/2001
Program End:
4/2004
Project Description:
Ilirjan (Liri) Qirici has completed his second year with MATV as part of the CTC VISTA Project. Whereas a good part of the first year involved finding ways to adapt the work environment to meet Liri’s physical needs so that he could develop to his full potential as a staff member, the second year was marked by Liri’s complete immersion in his daily worklife at MATV. Liri has made tremendous progress in his professional and personal goals and has contributed in great measure to the expansion of MATV’s volunteer and community programming capacity. It is not an understatement to say that Liri’s presence alone has attracted and inspired a great many volunteers to participate at MATV.
Project goals for both years are as follows:
Goal 1: Tutorial Production Instructor for MATV members/interns
Goal 2: Executive Producer of Community Show Malden Square
Goal 3: Producer/Director of Community Show “What Is…? “
Project Outcome:
Presently, Liri is in the midst of developing two critical projects that could have an impact on underserved populations in greater Boston and beyond. The Massachusetts State Association for the Deaf has been meeting regularly with Liri and other MATV staff to develop and train its members to begin production of a new TV program – Deaf Community News – a show to be produced by and for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Secondly, Liri is coordinating the staff and clients from Triangle, Inc. (a non-profit organization providing employment, residential and social services to people with disabilities) in the production of a monthly magazine TV show to be produced entirely by developmentally and physically disabled adults.
This past year, Liri has produced and directed a monthly program entitled What Is…? that focuses on medical illnesses, disabilities, and disease prevention. He has developed a crew of ten volunteers that handle all aspects of the production process. The program involves and promotes many local non-profit health-related organizations and medical institutions. This program won first prize in the “Talk Show” category at the Alliance for Community Media Northeast Region Video Festival in the fall of 2002. Liri will continue to produce this quality program in the coming year.
Liri’s work at the Cyber Café @ Malden Square has been as an ambassador of communications technology – teaching, nurturing, and challenging volunteers and patrons from all backgrounds to learn and utilize technology to improve their lives.
Liri is working with MATV to acquire additional assistive technology, in particular, voice-activated digital editing software that will increase his independence and productivity at MATV.
Note: Liri produced a segment of the Commonwealth Broadband Collaborative’s “First Tuesday” program that was cablecast throughout eastern Massachusetts and webcast on May 4, 2004 that covers his own VISTA work and can be seen by going to the project’s video archives at .
Impact Quote:
Liri has made tremendous progress in his professional and personal goals and has contributed in great measure to the expansion of MATV’s volunteer and community programming capacity. It is not an understatement to say that Liri’s presence alone has attracted and inspired a great many volunteers to participate at MATV.
CTC Program Building
Organization:
Parents, Let's Unite for Kids VISTA Name:
Brenda Jackson
Program Start:
6/2002
Program End:
6/2003
Project Description:
Brenda Jackson began her work as a VISTA volunteer with PLUK in June of 2002. Her principal goal has been to further develop the technology center programs, outreach to other community organizations and sustainability. We’ve come a long way and then some with Brenda’s assistance. The centerpiece has been funding for a state-wide tutoring program for at-risk children which is headquartered within the technology center. Brenda was a participant in an eight-month program for training collaborative teams around the state to evaluate technology needs for individuals with disabilities. We continue to benefit from her efforts by being awarded a Beaumont Foundation Grant she had written for a mobile lab to be used for training.
Project Outcome:
Brenda made great steps in developing the programs of the technology center. These steps include: increasing the number of support volunteers for all programs, reaching out to other organizations that are trying to develop technology centers within their communities, researching funding options, applying for funding to ensure sustainability, developing a marketing plan for public awareness, presenting to groups, organizing training events in the center, and slowly increasing the quantity and quality of the programs in the center along with developing the infrastructure.
Project Accomplishments:
• 2 presentations on Web accessibility
• sent out electronic info to 100 people;
• 1 presentation on educational technology;
• organized a tutor program for 20 kids;
• organized ScienceQuest program for 10 kids (created collaboration with four organizations and designed a Web page about the program (http://www.pluk.org/sciencequest.htm);
• made contact with two other organizations, lining up space, computers, and program materials for satellite CTCs if funded, and wrote the grant for funding;
• currently working on establishing an education program for educators, paraprofessionals, and parents on assistive technology tools that are available.
• developing a catalogue of in-house resource materials;
• designing a flier for the assistive technology lab, revamping existing materials,
• designing a Web site for the assistive technology lab as part of the VISTA project.
• participated in the Montana Collaborative Empowerment Project
• participated in a Digital Media Workshop.
• designed web page for VISTA project (http://www.pluk.org/ctc-americorpvista.htm)
Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator
Organization:
Community Computer Access Network (C-CAN) VISTA Name:
Heidi Marshall
Program Start:
8/2002
Program End:
8/2003
Project Description:
AmeriCorps/ VISTA member Heidi Marshall finished development work on the C-CAN Volunteer Hub project as well as work on a new initiative: developing a “technical assessment” report that local CTCs might use as a model.
The Volunteer Hub project required finalizing the database of local CTCs, contracting them to review their data, and training them in use of the online volunteer database and volunteer opportunities directory (www.c-can.org). In the course of this project, Heidi focused on recruitment of volunteers. To date, volunteers have been matched to 12 programs around the city, and several more are scheduled to come on board this coming fall of 2003.
Project Outcome:
In addition to recruiting and managing volunteers, Heidi has been very involved with local colleges and the University of Minnesota regarding placement of student interns within area CTCs. Heidi attended many meetings in the course of this project, and as a result, C-CAN was one of only a few, select non-profit organizations the U of Minnesota chose as partners for their community outreach program, a program that places undergraduates in social service agencies as part of course work.
This groundwork has helped us to develop a sustainable network of volunteers for local CTCs that will serve the community even after our AmeriCorps*VISTA members finish their service later this year.
Since February of 2003, Heidi has organized and facilitated two quarterly and one annual meeting for local CTCs, working with other national organizations to provide resources to our local CTC partners. As a result of her outreach work, 25 local CTC leaders and advocates, and a representative from CTC/national (Felicia Sullivan) made a presentation at our annual conference in September.
Heidi finished work with a local community agency (Pillsbury United Communities; see attached) to develop and implement a “technical assessment” project that will serve as a model for other organizations that have asked for assistance with assessments.
Impact Quote:
The success of Heidi’s service year has resulted in increased activity and the development of formal collaborations between partners, the public and our organization, and the development of a sustainable online volunteer matching service.
Volunteer Coordinator
Organization:
The EDGE Community Technology Center VISTA Name:
Krissy Sinor
Program Start:
8/2002
Program End:
8/2002
Project Description:
Goal 1: Development of a volunteer training program. Recruit and coordinate volunteers for the facility.
Goal 2: Organize participant database for generating project reports. Select and interview participants for follow-up surveys and to gather sustainability statistics for further grant prospects.
Goal 3: Format and post complete course instruction and handouts for basic courses to the EDGE web page to provide reinforcement and practice materials for EDGE participants.
Project Outcome:
During her year of service, VISTA member Krissy Sinor has enabled the Edge CTC at the Springfield-Greene County Library to build a successful technology program for both youth and adults. The curriculum has continued to evolve and now includes nearly 100 different classes. The 3,900 participants during this time have been pleased with opportunities to attend training classes and programs that teach technology and information retrieval skills based upon their particular needs, interests, and skill level.
Krissy has developed a core of reliable volunteers for the EDGE. She also helped coordinate federal work study students from a local community college, CIS and CASL students working on collaborative projects, and workers/trainers from the American Association of Retired Persons Employment training program.
Krissy has done an excellent job overseeing the maintenance of the participant database and class evaluation database. She set up procedures to train volunteers to perform data entry and helped produce written procedures for ongoing reports. She also coordinated a project that allowed local university Service Learning students to perform telephone follow-up surveys for previous EDGE participants. This information will be included in future grant proposals.
The EDGE decided against a major effort to post course instruction and handouts for basic courses to the EDGE web page. Instead, Krissy helped with the creation and fine-tuning of written handouts that supported all EDGE classes. She also trained volunteers and work-study students to help with the creation, editing, and duplication process.
Impact Quote:
The EDGE database, containing demographic and statistical information on nearly 1400 participants will prove very valuable during future grant writing and fund raising efforts. The maintenance procedures created by Krissy will insure accurate input of future records.