Like many nonprofit organizations in Connecticut over the past few years, Gifts of Love in Avon has experienced escalating demand for service and stagnant funding.
While its client base increased by 28 percent last year to more than 11,000 people, the organization — which provides basic needs assistance from food and clothes to energy assistance — has not cut staff or turned clients away. In fact, Gifts of Love, since 2009, has bucked a significant trend in the non-profit sector by expanding services with help from an unlikely source: high school volunteers.
Diana Goode, executive director of Gifts of Love, says student volunteers, who comprise nearly 40 percent of her organization’s active volunteers, have enabled her organization to operate two nights per month and one Saturday per month.
“Those additional hours of operation enable us to more conveniently serve the many working families in our community who still need help making ends meet,” Goode said. “One of the primary reasons we’ve kept pace with demand is because of our young volunteers.”
And teens, it seems, are becoming a significant portion of the volunteer base for Connecticut nonprofits. In fact, according to a 2011 report compiled by the Corporation for National & Community Service, more than 36 percent of Connecticut teens ages 16-19 volunteered in 2010, more than any other age group.
While many nonprofits overlook high school students, Goode has harnessed their volunteer spirit, working closely with Avon High School and Northwest Catholic High School, two schools that require student community service, to recruit volunteers. In total, she says, her ‘volunteen’ program has a core of between 20 and 30 volunteers, with a network of 135 adolescents who typically donate time on special projects.
“We empower students to run the entire program,” Goode said. “They help in the clothing room, food pantry, provide data entry — it’s their show.”
Caroline Davenport, a senior at Northwest Catholic High School, was attracted to Gifts of Love because it addresses needs in her community — like food insecurity — that she was surprised to learn existed in the affluent Farmington Valley. “I learned to be more compassionate and aware,” Davenport said. “I guess I was a bit sheltered.”
Goode notes, for instance, in Farmington Valley alone more than 1,000 kids qualify for free or reduced lunch and nearly 500 families rely on the area’s food pantry. That’s a need that Goode’s student volunteers are directly helping to tackle. Last year, in partnership with the Community Farm of Simsbury, Gifts of Love student volunteers helped, in part, to harvest the farm’s 13,000 pounds of food that was donated to local food banks.
And the teens are doing more than helping those in need; they’re also helping Goode’s bottom line. “The hours that our student volunteers donate save our organization about $70,000 a year,” Goode said, noting her organization’s total budget is $360,000.
“When we started our student volunteer program, people thought I was crazy,” Goode concedes. “I was told high school students would not be dependable, but they’re active, responsible and have proven they can make a difference.”
Foundation grants total $28 million
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving awarded more than $28 million in more than 1,600 grants during 2011 in support of the region’s nonprofit agencies and educational institutions.
More than one-third of the grants — approximately $10 million — went to programs supporting education and economic development, which are the focus of the Hartford Foundation’s new strategic plan, Accelerate Success.
Nonprofit agencies providing family and social services received the largest amount of grant dollars, about 24 percent, or approximately $6.8 million. This reflects Census Bureau data that more than 9 percent of Connecticut’s population has incomes below the federal poverty level — $21,756 for a family of two adults and two children.
Other major areas for funding were arts and culture, $4.8 million or 17 percent, and health, at 14 percent, or $4 million. Grants to support summer programs totaled more than $1 million, as did grants for college scholarships.
The largest single grant — $1.3 million — went to the Greater Hartford Arts Council for regranting to more than 100 local arts, heritage, cultural and community groups.
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Wisdom Awards underway
Central Connecticut Senior Health Services is seeking nominations for its Wisdom Awards, a program celebrating those seniors who continue to inspire and make a difference.
Categories include: healthy aging; military service; volunteer service in the community; career service; caregiver; creativity and the arts; educator, and a posthumous legacy award.
The nomination deadline is Feb. 1. Recipients will be recognized on Sunday, April 22, at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville.
