Better Together will be hosting the core of Volunteer Connect’s volunteer-matching service, which connects volunteers with over 140 Central Oregon Community organizations. Better Together’s mission is to align and enhance resources across the region to increase the number of students graduating from high school, continuing their education and training after high school, and ultimately beginning work in a meaningful career.
Hosting the volunteer-matching database will support and further Better Together’s work.
“Supporting youth-serving organizations with volunteers and providing young people meaningful opportunities to engage in the community directly aligns with our mission of increasing successful outcomes for Central Oregon youth,” explains Better Together Executive Director Katie Condit. “We are excited about the opportunity to keep this incredible resource alive, and to build on it in a way that directly serves our current birth-to-career initiatives across the region.”
Betsy Warriner, the founder and executive director of Volunteer Connect, concurs, “I am thrilled that Better Together has stepped up to continue the essential work of offering volunteers an easy and reliable way to connect with meaningful opportunities to serve our communities. We see this as an excellent fit.”
Better Together is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and program of the High Desert Education Service District. The organization works with over 200 cross-sector organizations and partners to collectively move the needle on community-level shared outcomes for young people from birth to career. Volunteer Connect has been a critical resource for many Better Together partners, and we are excited for the opportunity to keep this resource alive and develop it to further address our partners’ needs specifically around supporting young people.
Volunteer Connect served as our regional volunteer center before closing in August 2016. Through its website search system, volunteers and community organizations were able to match their interests and needs. The organization connected volunteers of all ages with one-time and ongoing opportunities to serve communities in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties. In 2016, Volunteer Connect began to emphasize volunteer service for and by youth. We are happy that Better Together will be able to carry forward this emphasis, while continuing to match volunteers of all ages with all kinds of opportunities.
CONTACT: Katie Condit, Executive Director, Better Together, 541-693-5679, Katie.Condit@hdesd.org, http://bettertogethercentraloregon.org
