Monday, January 24, 2011

Nationwide volunteer initiative launched at MLK Service Forum

I had the pleasure of speaking with David Ray, the Chief Strategy and Public Policy Officer at HandsOn Network, at the MLK Service Forum on Saturday. Here is a summary of our conversation:

Q: What brought you here today?
A: I am here to join Hands On Charlotte in honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the MLK Service Forum and to announce the nationwide launch of a HandsOn Network program called Road to the Gulf.

Q: Why did HandsOn Network decide to put on Road to the Gulf?
A: During the 2010 HandsOn Network conference in New York, while discussing the plans for the 2011 conference in New Orleans, we began to reflect on how much the Gulf region still needs help rebuilding. At the time of the 2010 conference, the Gulf region was facing the oil spill while still attempting to recover from Hurricane Katrina. The HandsOn Network decided to create a program to build momentum and to increase volunteer capacity nationwide in 2011 by holding a ten city tour culminating with a week of service in New Orleans.

Q: What are the goals of Road to the Gulf?
A: There are ten cities along three different paths leading to New Orleans in June. At strategic stops along the Road to the Gulf, HandsOn Network will be conducting boot camps to train service leaders to organize and manage others. They will also be working to develop projects that address community-specific needs. HandsOn Network hopes to log over 25,000 volunteer hours on the Road to the Gulf tour and train more than 10,000 new project leaders.

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According to Lisa Quisenberry, Executive Director of Hands on Charlotte, HandsOn Network thought our MLK Week of Service would be a great place to launch the Road to the Gulf. How exciting! Charlotte is the first city on the tour! In line with the HandsOn Network initiative of training 10,000 new project leaders, a Project Leader training session was conducted during the MLK Service Forum.

For more information on Road to the Gulf, click here.


Interview by Lynne Warholic, a volunteer at Hands On Charlotte.

Edited and posted by Tanner Kroeger.

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