United Way Volunteer Center

Mayor Harold Perrin helps kick off the new volunteer center at the local United Way.

YWP.com worked closely with the NEA United Way to develop new online volunteer center designed to provide an online way to connect volunteer opportunities with volunteers.  This new online application allows agencies a place to make available their volunteer opportunities, as well as their needs for specific products.  Volunteers are able to view these opportunities and contact the agency directly if interested.  Statistical information on the volunteers, as well as agency opportunities can be gathered by the new volunteer application, providing valuable data for both agencies and the United Way.

On July 16^th, 2009, Mayor Harold Perrin cut the ribbon in front of a contingent of approximately 60 people representing a number of different charitable organizations, the local chamber of commerce, the NEA United Way, various political organizations, and the city of Jonesboro.  Afterward, Mayor Perrin registered online as a volunteer, along with many other agencies logging in and adding new volunteer opportunities.

This event was a culmination of several months of development and design by the staff here at YWP working with Wendy Kirk, Director, and the staff at NEA United Way. And, it included several training sessions for over 45 different non-profit agencies hosted by the Center for Learning Technologies at Arkansas State University over a month’s worth of beta testing and data entry. Henry Torres, the Director of the Center, and his staff were extremely helpful and accommodating allowing us to utilize their state of the art training facilities. Thanks, Henry!

This is only the first phase of this project with statewide organizations to be included for future phases, as well as the capture of even more volunteer data  for reporting at national agency levels.