Mentor Michigan - Michigan Community Service Commission Awarded $262,500 to Support Volunteer Efforts

Michigan Community Service Commission Awarded $262,500 to Support Volunteer Efforts

The Michigan Community Service Commission, the state’s lead agency on service and volunteerism, announced today the receipt of $262,500 in funding to support various volunteer activities and efforts in the state. The grant was provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency for volunteering and service, as part of their Volunteer Generation Fund.

The Volunteer Generation Fund was established in 2010 and focuses upon the need to recruit, manage, and retain more volunteers to address pressing social challenges. As a result of its original implementation, the MCSC received a $1,446,000 Volunteer Generation Fund grant over three years to establish Volunteer Michigan – an initiative which encompasses a number of unique volunteer engagement strategies that seek to more effectively leverage Michigan’s volunteers. Since 2010, the MCSC has accomplished much success through Volunteer Michigan including: the activation of more than 100,000 volunteers on National Days of Service; the engagement of 15,000 volunteers with six community collaboratives focused on public safety and health; and the implementation of 15 Volunteer Center technology systems.

Now with newly awarded funds, the MCSC hopes to expand its first three years of triumph to impact a key population: Michigan’s youth. Through the use of new Volunteer Generation Fund grant dollars, the MCSC will enhance two different initiatives – Volunteer Michigan and Mentor Michigan – to engage volunteers in helping the state’s youth become well-prepared and successful in life. To accomplish this goal, the MCSC will employ four key strategies: volunteer recruitment, implementing quality-based standards, developing resources, and establishing new collaborations. As a result, the MCSC hopes to engage an additional 7,000 volunteers in serving Michigan youth, as well as strengthening the quality of youth mentoring organizations, enhancing state-based resources that serve young people, and increasing the collaboration of youth organizations that utilize volunteers.

“The success of Michigan’s youth is absolutely essential to the success of our state as whole,” explained MCSC Executive Director Ginna Holmes. “Through the CNCS Volunteer Generation Fund grant, the MCSC will not only be able to enhance and expand the capacity of youth serving organizations across the state, but we will also be able to increase the number of volunteers serving this important population – a relationship that has proven to have a powerful and lasting impact on the life of a young person.”

The MCSC was one of 17 different states to receive a Volunteer Generation Fund grant. Totaling approximately $4 million in federal funding, these investments help strengthen volunteer recruitment and retention, expand the nation’s volunteer pool, and create a sustainable infrastructure of volunteer connector organizations to increase the impact of volunteers in solving local problems.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The Michigan Community Service Commission utilizes service as a strategy to address the state's most pressing issues and empowers volunteers to strengthen communities. In 2013-14, the MCSC is granting more than $7.5 million in federal funds to local communities for volunteer programs and activities. Its signature programs include the Governor’s Service Awards, Mentor Michigan, Michigan’s AmeriCorps, and Volunteer Michigan.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads the President's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.