United Way receives $36,000 Rotary grant

TRAVERSE CITY – The United Way of Northwest Michigan has been awarded a $36,305 grant by Rotary Charities of Traverse City.

The funds will be used to support the United Way Volunteer Center’s youth and families initiative. The program recruits and matches young people and families with volunteer opportunities in a roster of 220-and-growing non-profit agencies in the Grand Traverse region. "Our continuing goals are to increase the recruitment of youth and family as volunteers and to develop our capacity to use the Internet in this recruitment effort,” said Steven Wade, United Way executive director. “We have implemented a variety of efforts to connect with this population – and with good reason. Our hope is that young people, starting with early volunteer opportunities now, will embark on a lifelong pattern of giving to their community through volunteerism.”

The United Way has built a Volunteer Youth Web page that is now one of the primary tools used in the recruitment of youth and family, Wade said. There’s also a blog to encourage conversation about volunteer experiences among young volunteers, with links to social networking sites.
The United Way also manages the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, linking people 55 and older with volunteer opportunities in area organizations and agencies. Combined, the volunteer recruitment efforts are designed to support community non-profits – many of which find themselves even more strapped for help as they are overwhelmed by demand in the current economy.

“Many of the non-profits with whom we work have limited resources and their capacity to manage volunteers, or even to identify quality volunteer opportunities within their organization, is quite limited,” said Wade. “That’s where, with support from this grant, we can really make a difference.”

The United Way of Northwest Michigan seeks to efficiently raise and effectively distribute both financial and volunteer resources to support community-determined initiatives that improve the lives of residents in Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties. Information about the United Way and volunteering can be obtained through the Web site, www.unitedwaynwmi.org, by calling (231) 947-3200 or emailing info@unitedwaynwmi.org.