Mission

The Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona, founded in 1965, is a private nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening communities through effective volunteerism. We're best known as a clearinghouse for volunteers, but we also deliver creative solutions to community problems by harnessing the power of volunteerism in a number of other ways. We directly engage young people and adults in a variety of programs that better the community and encourage life-long involvement in volunteer activities. And we support hundreds of other nonprofit organizations that use volunteers by helping them develop their volunteer programs, and by training, referring, and honoring volunteers.

Programs

The Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona focuses many of its efforts on engaging volunteers to serve children. The Mentoring Partnership has made a commitment to connect at-risk youth in Tucson to an adult mentor, offering the hope of personal success. The Mentoring Partnership has connected more than 6000 youth with caring adults and increased the capacity of local organizations to engage mentors in their work. Statistics prove that adult role models contribute to these youth remaining in school, staying out of gangs, and improving grades and behavior.

The Youth Volunteer Corps offers youth ages 11-18 an opportunity to learn the importance and rewards of volunteering, to impact life within their neighborhoods, and to become active members of the community. Most importantly, they learn to embrace a positive lifestyle. In addition, the Volunteer Center's Greater Tucson Youth Leadership Program helps youth develop leadership skills and put them to use as members of local nonprofit boards.

The Volunteer Center builds capacity in the community through its nonprofit training and consulting programs. As the community experts in volunteer management, the Center is leading the effort to organize and coordinate volunteer response during disasters. Our Children's Healthy Start Initiative aims to solve a serious social problem by mobilizing volunteers to enroll families and children without heath insurance in existing State healthcare programs.

The Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona has been recognized both nationally and locally for our work. We have received three national grants and Public/Private Ventures selected the Volunteer Center as one of seven sites to participate in a national research project on youth mentoring. The Points of Light Foundation named the Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona as recipient of the George W. Romney Volunteer Center Excellence Award and we received a Certificate of Recognition from Arizona's Governor for our work of using service as a strategy to address the needs of children.

Accomplishments

1. Of the more than 2000 youth mentored through our Mentoring Partnership, 73% increased their attendance at school.

2. 63% of the children tutored by our Youth Volunteer Corps Reading Buddies demonstrated an increase in reading skills and affinity for reading.

3. 69% of welfare-to-work clients who participated in our unpaid work experience program at Tucson Medical Center were offered paid employment.

4. Designed and installed a tile Tree of Life to honor community volunteers.

5. Provided a backpack filled with toys and books to 3300 needy school children through "A Visit from Saint Nicholas."

6. Developed and offer a Youth Leadership Institute in partnership with Pima Community College, Greater Tucson Leadership and the University of Arizona Blue Chip Program.

Self Assessment

The Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona evaluates its services in many ways, including the use of pre and posttests, tracking numbers served and numbers of volunteers recruited and hours they serve. We also track outcomes such as how many youth maintained or improved their grades, how many improved their interactions with peers, etc. At meetings with staff or program partners, we review how projects are progressing towards their goals. We also seek feedback from those we serve. We provide youth volunteers with journals in which they can share their ideas and suggestions.

Chief Executive Profile

Ellen Hargis, President & Chief Executive Officer, has made it possible for the Center to achieve major accomplishments on a limited budget by forging relationships and collaborations with other organizations and leveraging financial resources. A noted workshop leader and trainer, Ms. Hargis is frequently called upon to make leadership training presentations to both the corporate and non-profit sectors. Her peers have twice named her "Agency Director of the Year," an unprecedented honor. She has also been named a Greater Tucson Leader. Her community involvement includes serving on the Arizona Commission on Service and Volunteerism.

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