Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan Kanawha, Clay, Boone, Putnam Cabell, Wayne Greenbrier Wetzel Ohio Hancock Lincoln, Mingo Logan Wyoming Pendleton, Grant, Mineral, Hardy, Hampshire Nicholas Fayette Raleigh Marion Preston, Barbour, Tucker, Randolph, Taylor Wood Brooke Marshall Doddridge Wirt, Calhoun Webster Pocahontas Mercer Lewis

A LETTER FROM THE VOLUNTEERWV.ORG PROGRAM COORDINATOR

VolunteerWV.org is growing! More than 150 organizations have announced nearly 700 volunteer opportunities available statewide. Since the official launch of the program in April 2005, VolunteerWV.org has been matching people who want to volunteer with organizations that need volunteers.

Matching is based on location, skills, duration of the opportunity, and other criteria. You are not required to register as a volunteer to search for available opportunities, but it does allow the program to notify you when an opportunity is posted that matches your criteria. You may be notified by email, phone, or postal service, depending on your selection when registering. Another bonus of registering as a volunteer is that you can track your volunteer hours. If your school, church, or employer offers incentives for performing a certain amount of community service hours, you can track your hours online and have a printout ready to be signed by your community service director. If you have been using the website, you probably noticed that it had a few bugs in the "logging hours" section, and that took some time to fix. That issue has been resolved.

Another improvement has been the addition of 14 partner organizations covering 31 counties. VolunteerWV.org recognizes that not every person in West Virginia has internet access. For that reason, we partnered with organizations around the state who offered to be a local contact for VolunteerWV.org. That means individuals can walk into one of our partner organization's offices and either use their computers to find information about volunteer opportunities or ask someone in that office to help you. With the strength and support of our partners, we can serve a larger population more efficiently.

Click on the interactive map to find the point of contact in your county. If there is no point of contact in your county, do not hesitate to contact me at the main office (304) 558-0111 or ltignor@mail.state.wv.us.

We also have four VISTAs helping spread the word about VolunteerWV.org.


Barb Showers covers Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, Mineral, Hardy, Grant, and Pendleton counties. Email Barb Showers at skeeter26757@yahoo.com or call (304)-822-5584.

Butch Neal covers Monongalia, Preston, Tucker, Randolph, Upshur, Braxton, Lewis, Barbour, Taylor, Marion, Harrison, Doddridge, and Gilmer. Email him at bneal@augusta-wv.com or call (304) 363-2550.

Linda Vidoni covers Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, and Tyler counties. Email Linda Vidoni at lindavidoni@yahoo.com or call (304) 232-6280.

They are very talented individuals who can help your organization post opportunities, arrange VolunteerWV.org trainings for your organization, or just help you out with technical difficulties. They are also available to do presentations about VolunteerWV.org and how it can help your organization recruit volunteers.

Lisa A. Tignor
Program Coordinator
VolunteerWV.org