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.

Jennifer Roberts, David Ray head speaker list at MLK Service Forum

We just wrapped up the speaker session with County Commissioner Jennifer Roberts and David Ray, Chief Strategy and Public Policy Officer for the HandsOn Network. Commissioner Roberts spoke about the resiliency of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s message of non-violence. David Ray spoke about the HandsOn Network's Road to the Gulf campaign, which Hands On Charlotte helped to launch today.

Check back on the blog next week for complete interviews with David Ray and Lisa Quisenberry, Hands On Charlotte's Executive Director.

Blogging from the MLK forum

Hey, I'm Lynne. I'm at the MLK Forum. If you can't be here, please follow and comment on Twitter, Facebook and the blog. We'll have quotes and thoughts from attendees!

At MLK Service Forum, prizes from US Air, NASCAR Hall of Fame

By now you know all about the opportunities to serve your community this Saturday at our MLK Service Forum. You can drop off donations in the car loop around the Grady Cole Center from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. You can pack supply kits for families along the Gulf Coast. You can send video notes to members of the Armed Forces abroad. You can attend leadership trainings. And, among other activities, you can get free health screenings from Carolinas HealthCare.

If you attend Saturday’s MLK Service Forum between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., you will receive a free t-shirt, and we will enter you to win:

• one of three US Airways gift cards each worth $100
• one of two pairs of tickets to the NASCAR Hall of Fame

The drawing for these prizes will early next week, and we will notify winners via phone.

Saturday’s MLK Service Forum is a family-friendly event where there will be on-site service projects geared toward families as well as children’s activities. Be sure to follow our blog and our Twitter feed (@HandsOnCLT) for updates.

Click here to learn more about the MLK Service Forum.

In-kind donations needed this Saturday

With the MLK Service Forum rescheduled for this Saturday, we want to let you know of the many ways you can participate. Today we are highlighting the donation drop-offs we will have outside the Grady Cole Center from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.

In the car loop around the Grady Cole Center, we will be accepting your donations. You don’t even have to get out of your car! When you arrive on Saturday, follow the signs directing you to the donation drop-off area.

We are requesting a wide variety of new and gently used items. These items will benefit non-profit organizations throughout Charlotte.

REQUESTED ITEMS: clothing for all ages, hygiene items for all ages, school supplies, office supplies, snack items for after-school programs, first-aid supplies, board games, card games, puzzles, cleaning supplies, electronics and computer equipment, speakers, microphones and amplifiers.

For a more specific list of requested items, please click here.

BENEFITING ORGANIZATIONS: American Red Cross, Bethlehem Center of Charlotte, Carolinas HealthCare System, Classroom Central, Communities-in-Schools, the CUP Ministry, Family Financial Literacy Coalition, Freedom School Partners, Greater Enrichment Program, Habitat ReStore, Hoskins Park Ministries, Hospitality House of Charlotte, Jacob’s Ladder Job Center, Latin American Coalition, Men’s Shelter of Charlotte, RSVP Charlotte, Salvation Army Center of Hope, Solutions for Life, Summit House Charlotte.

We hope that after you donate, you will join us inside the Grady Cole Center for the remainder of the MLK Service Forum, where you will find family-oriented service opportunities, a volunteer-recruitment fair, leadership trainings, free health screenings, among other activities. Be sure to follow this blog and Twitter feed (@HandsOnCLT) for updates throughout the week.

Free Community Cinema event tomorrow night

Please join Hands On Charlotte tomorrow night for a Community Cinema event at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte. From 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. we will screen two short documentaries – A Village Called Versailles and Deep Down. After each screening, we will hold a brief discussion about how the documentaries apply to our community and our daily lives. Admission to the event is free.

Click here for summaries and trailers of each film.

Community Cinemas are fast becoming one of the most popular forms of community service globally. Through film, communities around the world are having conversations with each other and with themselves, taking lessons from other places and applying them at home. In uncertain times, these discussions are more important now than ever. We invite you to join us tomorrow night at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte for one of the city’s first Community Cinema events.

MLK Week of Service begins today

Over the holiday season, did you urge yourself to volunteer more? Was it one of your New Years resolutions to get involved in your community?

Hands On Charlotte’s MLK Week of Service is an opportunity for you to jumpstart your community service in the New Year. Over the next week, Hands On Charlotte will sponsor some 50 projects across the city – all part of an effort to honor the life and ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We hope you’ll join us during the MLK Week of Service. Here are a few projects you could help us out with this weekend:

• Saturday – McGill Rose Garden: Come spruce up the grounds at McGill Rose Garden, located just outside Uptown.
• Saturday – Habitat ReStore: Help Habitat for Humanity sort through donated materials and recycle what they can’t use.
• Sunday – Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte: Join Hands On Charlotte for a MLK Community Cinema event at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte. Admission is free.

Click here to view our other projects.

We urge you to join us during our MLK Week of Service. Dr. King called people of all walks of life to participate in bettering their communities. The MLK Week of Service is an opportunity for you and your family to start serving your community in 2011.

UPDATE: MLK Service Forum moved to January 22

In a ripple effect of the snow storm, we have moved the MLK Service Forum to January 22. The event will start at 10 a.m. and last until 1 p.m. Here is a breakdown of how you can get involved:

• Donation drop off: Folks don’t even have to get out of their cars! From 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., Hands On Charlotte will be accepting donations in the loop around Grady Cole Center. Requested items include: clothing for all ages; hygiene items for all ages; school supplies; office supplies; packaged snack items for school-aged children; first-aid supplies; board games; cleaning supplies; electronic items (including computers, monitors, speakers, microphones and other education-related electronics.) Click here to learn more.
  
  
• Volunteer recruitment fair: From 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., Hands On Charlotte will bring together more than 20 nonprofit organizations from around the city to recruit and train volunteers for various projects. Volunteer training sessions start at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. For a listing of all agencies involved in the event, please visit our website.
  
  
• Free health screenings and children’s volunteer activities: Carolinas HealthCare will be providing free health screenings between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and during that time, Hands On Charlotte will be providing supervised children’s activities aimed at teaching kids about community service.
  

Continue following this blog and our Twitter feed (@HandsOnCLT) for updates.

How many people can you organize in one week?

In lieu of the traditional Friday Roundup, we’re asking for your social networking help. Hands On Charlotte needs you to help publicize our upcoming MLK Service Forum. So here's the question: How many people can you organize in one week? You can ReTweet us. You can link to our blog. You can tell your friends to “Like” our FanPage on Facebook on Facebook.

If our MLK Service Forum is going to be a success, it will be because of a grassroots effort. That means we need you to mobilize your inner circle! There are a few ways to participate in the MLK Service Forum on January 17 at the Grady Cole Center:

• Donation drop off: Folks don’t even have to get out of their cars! From 8 a.m. until 10 a.m., Hands On Charlotte will be accepting donations in the loop around Grady Cole Center. Requested items include: clothing for all ages; hygiene items for all ages; school supplies; office supplies; packaged snack items for school-aged children; first-aid supplies; board games; cleaning supplies; electronic items (including computers, monitors, speakers, microphones and other education-related electronics.) Click here to learn more.
  
  
• Volunteer recruitment fair: From 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., Hands On Charlotte will bring together more than 20 nonprofit organizations from around the city to recruit and train volunteers for various projects. Volunteer training sessions start at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. For a listing of all agencies involved in the event, please visit our website.
  
  
• Free health screenings and children’s volunteer activities: Carolinas HealthCare will be providing free health screenings between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and during that time, Hands On Charlotte will be providing supervised children’s activities aimed at teaching kids about community service.

Remember, there is no cost to attend the MLK Service Forum. Call 704.333.7471 or visit www.handsoncharlotte.org for more information. Keep following this blog, our Twitter feed and our Facebook FanPage for more information.

Hands On Charlotte is adding a new element to our MLK Week of Service – a Community Cinema.

We all know the power of films. Films have the ability to call up emotions in one’s self that we did not even know we had (which is my excuse for crying during ‘Titanic’). Films allow us to see how we are related to other people and ideas.

At our Community Cinema event, a group of individuals from the community will join together to watch one of three films. After each screening, we will hold a brief discussion on how the films relate to our lives and the broader Charlotte community.

Join us Sunday, January 16 at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte for a double screening from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. We’ll start with A Village Called Versailles and end with Deep Down.

Click here to sign up.


Bryan Schauerte

MLK Week of Service starts January 14

We know it can be tough to get jazzed about volunteering immediately after the holidays. There are bills to pay. Cold weather to deal with. And I’m certain that some people out there have a cold or the flu (if anyone wants to start a support group, let me know).

Well, here comes a spark to ignite your community-service spirit in 2011. From January 14 until January 21, Hands On Charlotte will present its MLK Week of Service.

During the MLK Week of Service, we will offer more than 60 projects at nonprofit organizations around the city. Visit the website to learn about all the projects.

Our MLK Week of Service is our beginning to 2011, our 20th-anniversary year. We need your help to make 2011 our best year yet, and that effort starts with our MLK Week of Service.

2011 begins January 17

Over the holiday season, we talked a lot about service. Of course, during that season, it’s an easy charge to talk about giving back and community engagement.

Here’s the challenge we all face on January 1: How do we sustain the spirit of the holiday season well into the New Year?

Here’s the answer in 30 words: Hands On Charlotte needs to empower our volunteers with new, innovative programming, and we need our volunteers to push themselves to continue serving their community, despite winter’s darkness and monotony.

The first major component of our 2011 programming is on January 17 at the Grady Cole Center, where we will host the first annual MLK Service Forum. The Forum will bring together some 20 nonprofit organizations from around the city to honor the life and ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We will have donation drop-offs, a volunteer-recruitment fair, free health screenings and children’s activities.

At our MLK Service Forum, you will have the opportunity to learn more about the needs of Charlotte’s nonprofits, and with that information, you’ll be able to map out how you want to serve your community in 2011.

We urge you to attend our MLK Service Forum. There is no cost to attend. Click here to learn more.

Starting an exciting, transformative year

Let’s kick off the New Year with a thank you. Thank you to everyone who donated to our holiday campaign in November and December. With your help, we raised $15,000 to support our programming. We said we needed your help to bring back all the dots, and as you can tell, the dots are all there.

In fact, you can see there are a few extra dots in the logo. As we begin 2011, we invite you to join in our 20th-anniversary celebration. We first started serving the Charlotte community in 1991, and 20 years later, we are looking forward to serving you 20 more!

We are going to celebrate our 20th anniversary with events all year long. The first of those events is January 17, when we will host our MLK Service Forum at Grady Cole Center from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. At the MLK Service Forum, we will honor the life and ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with donation-drop offs, a volunteer-recruitment fair and on-site service projects. The MLK Service Forum is part of our MLK Week of Service, which starts January 15 and will feature more than 60 service projects across the city.

Keep reading our blog and following our Twitter feed (@HandsOnCLT) for more updates on the MLK Service Forum and the MLK Week of Service. For all you Twitter users out there, the hashtag for the Service Forum is #mlkserviceforum.