Volunteer Centers achieve their vision through four identified core competencies that every Volunteer Center performs through its programs and services:

1. Connect people with the opportunities to serve.
2. Build the capacity for effective local volunteering.
3. Promote volunteering.
4. Participate in strategic initiatives that mobilize volunteers to meet local needs.

Connect People with the Opportunity to Serve
Volunteer Centers provide people a wide variety of opportunities to connect to their community through centralized recruitment and referral, managing and promoting community-based service events, designing programs for targeted populations, and providing episodic and short-term volunteer opportunities. As community leaders in collaborating with others to recruit and engage volunteers, Volunteer Centers mobilize people to help solve serious social problems in the community. Connecting people with the opportunities to serve is one of the cornerstone services provided by Volunteer Centers.

Build the Capacity for Effective Local Volunteering
Volunteer Centers help agencies, businesses, and individuals who work with volunteers do a better job of recruiting, managing, and retaining volunteers by providing volunteer management training and resources, advising professional associations of volunteer leaders, and supporting specialized groups of volunteers. Volunteer Centers are capacity builders-teaching schools, businesses, and nonprofit organizations how to use volunteer power effectively. They provide local leadership for national volunteer initiatives and provide a national network of local organizations poised to implement initiatives in communities across the nation.

Promote Volunteering
By raising the awareness of the power of service, Volunteer Centers encourage people to volunteer, provide information about volunteering, and recognize the contributions of volunteers. Mass media campaigns-such as radio shows, newspaper columns, public service advertisements, 1-800-VOLUNTEER awards programs, National Volunteer Week activities, and the ongoing education of policy makers are some strategies Volunteer Centers employ in promoting volunteering.

Participate in Strategic Initiatives that Mobilize Volunteers
to Meet Local Needs
Volunteer Centers serve as conveners for the community by working through local partnerships and collaborations with businesses, law enforcement, grassroots groups, schools, and community leaders to identify needs and mobilize a volunteer response. While Volunteer Centers may be the cornerstone of well-connected communities, they area also helping to connect the entire nation by working closely with other organizations both large and small. These organizations, such as businesses, communities of faith, professional associations, government institutions, civic groups, and nonprofit organizations, are critically important in providing the necessary resources and leadership to facilitate nationwide volunteering.

Download 2007 Community Volunteer Center Brochure