NotsoMini, what does volunteering their entail?
When I decided to do volunteer work, I looked into a number of not for profit organizations. I settled on the RMcD House for several reasons. I did not want to drive into LA and deal with the traffic and the hours/days are very flexible as other not for profits generally have a work schedule for their volunteers. Most of the other RMcD Houses in SoCal have their volunteers on a schedule as well. Pasadena is small in comparsion (14 bedrooms) compared to the LA House that has 75 bedrooms. In speaking for the Pasadena House there are many things volunteers can do. When filling out an information application, applicants can designate what they like to do. For myself, they use me mostly for office type work although I do many other things. I do data entry, phone coverage when the two employees are gone or when there is an overflow of calls, working at fundraising events such as the annual Gala (largest fundraiser), Walk for Kids, yard sales, wrapping Xmas gifts for the families and their children (each child and their siblings get on average 25 gifts each all received
through donations), background screening of new applicants (we screen for sexual predators), enrolling children in the Pasadena ISD when the family will be at the House for a long time, etc. During the school year, we get high school students that are in a service club so they need to get anywhere from 10 to 20 hours of service in by a specified date so I help with the process. In between though I do other ad hoc things as they come up. As an example yesterday the Operations Director and I were to go to a senior citizens group. At the last minute one of us needed to stay behind for coverage so I opted to do this. On occasion I also do some small public speaking at high schools, companies, sororities, etc. I have also helped clean bedrooms when a guest has checked out and we have another guest waiting to check in especially when we have no other volunteers onsite. For other volunteers there are many other duties they can do as well such as housework, yardwork, organizing and disinfecting the toy closet toys and organizing the bookshelves (we have many different language books), etc., etc. Yesterday we had a blind gal volunteering and she was filling baggies with a scoop of laundry detergent. No matter how small a job is, the House appreciates it as they cannot do everything.
I am working on a project to price energy efficient appliances. I started this project a few months ago by having the City of Pasadena Department of Water and Power come in and do a survey on how we can contribute to water savings during our drought. Most recently they submitted the results of their findings. We have a small grant so the money will not go far as there are multiples of each appliance.
If you have any other specific questions, let me know. Also apology for being long winded.
http://rmhcsc.org/pasadena/