Celebrating Our Indispensable Volunteers

April is Volunteer Appreciation Month 

April is Volunteer Appreciation month both in the US and internationally. The US celebrates Volunteer Recognition Day on April 20th. Volunteer Appreciation Month serves as a time to honor volunteers for their contributions as well as to encourage future volunteering in communities across the country.  

A special shout-out to our volunteers! 

The Women’s Center would like to use this month’s blog to recognize and thank our vital team of volunteers. Without our volunteers, our success would not be possible. As a streamlined organization, our volunteers serve a crucial role at The Center, providing essential workforce augmentation, adding valuable skills, and serving in a diversity of roles that help The Women’s Center achieve its mission and more effectively serve the community.  

Each year, over 200 volunteers generously offer their time, energy, and expertise to help support The Women’s Center. Our volunteers serve in a variety of roles, including staffing for events and workshops, bolstering our administrative and development teams, driving special projects and committees, and running the all-important Information and Referral (I&R) line, which is the initial point of contact that the public has with The Women’s Center.  

Volunteering at The Women’s Center – A legacy of giving 

Viki Kinsman is the Volunteer Coordinator at The Women’s Center. In her role, Viki is responsible for organizing, training, and managing volunteers at The Women’s Center. Viki says that, although every volunteer has an individual reason volunteering, all volunteers are united in their belief and commitment to furthering the mission statement of The Women’s Center “To significantly improve the mental health and well-being of all members of our community through counseling, education, and support – regardless of ability to pay.”   

Viki notes that the wide variety of roles and the flexibility offered by The Women’s Center volunteer program allows each individual to contribute in ways that work for them – everything from covering shifts that last a couple of hours, pro-bono consulting, community outreach, contributing specific business function expertise and workshops  on various topics such as career, financial and personal wellbeing.  

“Volunteers at The Women’s Center are an integral part of our organization,” says Viki. “It is my job to make sure they feel valued and understand that they are part of the team. We also do our best to ensure that they receive the highest-quality training, feel entrusted to manage their projects, and have the exposure to develop new skills. Additionally, volunteers even benefit from the camaraderie that comes from meeting like-minded people from a range of backgrounds.” Satisfaction from being a volunteer at The Women’s Center is so strong that, based on surveys, nearly all volunteers remain open to volunteering again in the future. 

At the core, Viki feels that all volunteers at The Women’s Center are driven by the belief that, through their volunteerism, they can make a positive difference to people’s lives in our community.  

And throughout its 50+ years in service, volunteers at The Women’s Center have been doing just that.  

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Thanks again to all the volunteers at The Women’s Center (and to all those who donate their time and energy to any organization).