Volunteer Lake County August Newsletter

News & Updates

August 2020

Virtual/Remote Volunteer Opportunity Brainstorming Session

We want to invite you to join us for a brainstorming session on virtual/remote volunteer opportunities. We know this is new territory for most of us, so we want to give everyone an opportunity to talk through any questions or ideas they may have around the topic. Please CLICK HERE to take our poll to help us determine a time and date that works best for the session.

In-Person Volunteer Project Safety Precautions

For those organizations considering in-person volunteer projects we wanted to offer some advice on safety precautions to help volunteers feel more comfortable at your organization.

Masks are now mandatory in the state of Indiana, so make sure volunteers are properly wearing their masks at all times while volunteering.
You can require volunteers to bring their own mask from home, however it wouldn't hurt to have disposable masks on site in case anyone forgets theirs.
Set up hand sanitizing stations in easily accessible places so volunteers can sanitize throughout the project.
Make sure your volunteer are safely social distanced. This means keeping them 6-10 feet away from each other, unless they are from the same household.
Have your volunteers complete a quick questionnaire before they arrive at your site. Ask them questions like:
Have you traveled in the last two weeks?
Have you or anyone in your household had a fever or flu-like symptoms in the past two weeks?
Have you been in contact with anyone recently diagnosed with COVID?
Have you been at an event with more than 100 people in the past two weeks?
Have you been tested for COVID in the past two weeks?
Based on their questionnaire responses you can make a determination on if you think they are at risk of bringing the virus into your facility. If you have any concerns about their answers it is acceptable to ask them to postpone volunteering.
You can also do temperature checks, however you'll need to make sure to sanitize the thermometer in between each use.
Make sure to frequently sanitize any surfaces or areas the volunteers will be using.

Unity In Our Community Week Becomes Season of Caring

Like many of you, we here at Lake Area United Way have been adapting to the new normal caused by the pandemic. Due to the ever changing nature of the virus and social distancing guidelines, we've all had to reevaluate our volunteer programs and projects. We have been thinking long and hard about Unity In Our Community Week and how to make it easy and accessible for our agency partners and volunteers, and decided the best option would be to scrap the week long event and expand it to a Season of Caring. This year's event will run September through December.

We thought this expansion would give you, and our volunteers, more flexibility in the projects you can host as well as the time frame for hosting those projects. We encourage you to consider both in-person and virtual/remote projects this year. We did a survey at the start of the pandemic of our volunteer base, and there were people who said they would be willing to volunteer in-person as long as there are proper safety precautions in place, so don't feel that you can't offer in-person projects this year.

We will be creating a special Season of Caring page on the VolunteerLakeCounty.org website similar to the page we always create for Unity In Our Community Week. All Season of Caring projects will be posted on this page, and this is where we will direct volunteers to view and sign up for projects. To add projects to Season of Caring you can CLICK HERE to download a project form, fill it out, and email it to Megan Sikes to upload to the site. You can also post your projects as you normally would, and then email Megan to let her know and she will update the project to show on the Season of Caring page. Megan's email is [email protected].

The Season of Caring page is live, so you can start adding projects at any time. We will continue to add projects to the page throughout the remainder of the year. There are no requirements on what types of projects you can post. We do encourage you to consider projects that would be good for groups as well as individuals. We also suggest considering supply drives as an option as they can easily be done in the workplace. We also encourage you to consider remote projects for volunteers who don't feel comfortable out in the community this year. If you are having a hard time coming up with project ideas, we will be holding a virtual brainstorming session this month. Be sure to click the link the sidebar to fill out the survey to help us determine the best time to hold the session.

VolunteerLakeCounty.org Refresh

You might remember we mentioned that the volunteer website would be getting a facelift. Well it took a little longer than we expected, but the site has now been updated with a new layout. The functionality remains the same, but the look of the site is fresher and cleaner.

There is one new feature for agency partners that we wanted to make sure you know about. You now have the ability to mark volunteer projects as virtual opportunities. View the video below to learn how to post a virtual project.

We highly recommend considering virtual (or remote) opportunities this year. As COVID cases rise, volunteers will be more inclined to help out with projects that don't require them to be around others. We will be holding a Zoom call to discuss virtual volunteer opportunities and help each other brainstorm ideas later this month. Please be sure to complete the poll in the sidebar to help us determine the best time for the call.

How To Post Virtual Projects on VolunteerLakeCounty.org

Advocacy Opportunities

COVID-19 Advocacy Opportunities

With Congress beginning to debate the newest stimulus package, there are a few provisions we can advocate for to help our clients better weather the COVID-19 storm.

Protect Lake County Renters

Call your Senators and ask them to pass the housing elements of the HEROES Act to protect low-income renters and prevent a tsunami of evictions. Congress needs to hear from you about the increase in evictions in your communities, the threat of many more to come, and the need for people to have homes in order to “stay at home” during this health crisis. We must not allow massive numbers of households to be driven into homelessness during the pandemic. Immediate action is a moral imperative and a public health necessity.

Call:

Senator Braun - (202) 224-4814

Senator Young - (202) 224-5623

When you reach their office, ask them to support these housing priorities for the next coronavirus relief package:

$100 billion in emergency rental assistance
National, uniform moratorium on evictions
$11.5 billion in emergency resources for people experiencing homelessness
At least $13 billion to ensure housing stability

Support Child Care Funding

Over 1,600 child care facilities in Indiana have closed due to the COVID-19 crisis, and the remaining ones are struggling to operate at 20-40% capacity.

As Indiana continues to reopen, child care matters more than ever. We need to care for Hoosier families and especially their children now and in the future. Joining United Way Worldwide, we are advocating for $50 billion in relief for child care here in Indiana and across the United States. Send a message to your legislator to ask them to include at least $50 billion in funding for child care in the next congressional COVID-19 relief package.

You can email , call , or tweet your legislators to let them know you support funding for child care in Indiana. Simply click on the links below and fill out the form to get the information for you local legislators, as well as editable messages and sample tweets you can use.