
August 2008 issue
Dear Friends: Mentoring has been a passion for our team for many years, starting with the launch Governor Bush’s Mentoring Initiative in Florida in 1999. During the ensuing years I’ve been impressed with the personal involvement of so many leaders, and their commitment. No longer when we walk in a school is the term “mentor” or particularly “mentee” a foreign word, in the best scenarios it is a well organized program in our schools and communities. We at Volunteer USA Foundation salute the many people who help lead mentoring initiatives including General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret) and Dr. Wintley Phipps, president of the U.S. Dream Academy. And, we’re interested in helping the next generation of great leaders. Through August 31, we are accepting nominations from high school students in the southern United States to start a Teen Trendsetter™ Reading Mentor program for their community. We’ll provide the training (and we’ll fly students to Orlando, Florida and include a visit to Universal Studios), a $1,000 stipend for a teacher to help, and underwrite all the costs for the program materials. Visit www.teentrendsetters.org for more information. Our Florida Teen Trendsetter Reading Mentors™ program now includes 2500 teens and a like number of third-graders. We’re especially grateful to the Florida legislature, and particularly the leadership of Representatives Rubio and Samson for the legislative support of this program, and to Florida Power and Light for funding to add new books on conservation and the environment to the series of books each of the third-graders receive. Visit http://www.fpl.com/community/ environment.shtml to learn more. And, we’d like to encourage everyone to consider mentoring. It’s as simple as contacting your local school and getting involved. Sincerely, Liza McFadden Our Board of Directors Barney Bishop Chairman, Volunteer USA Foundation Associated Industries of Florida Maureen Cestari Comcast Cable David Griffin David Griffin Consulting Brad Meltzer Author Art Smith Chef & Author Gwynn Virostek Washington Mutual Jeb Bush Honorary Chairman and former Governor of Florida Our Staff Liza McFadden President Elizabeth Hirst Senior Vice President Roxann Campbell Director of Programs Teecy Matthews Director of Training Michael Thompson Program Coordinator Heather Brinkworth Regional Program Coordinator Tracey Gallagher Program Coordinator Jaimie Hudson Regional Program Coordinator Gerri Palmer Program Assistant Mark Nelson Director of Strategic Partnerships Venita Dorsey Finance Director Brandi Brown Special Events Coordinator Volunteer USA Foundation www.volunteerusafoundation.org 850.562.5300 Volunteer USA Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works to strengthen Florida by meeting community and family needs through volunteerism and community service. The Foundation serves as a catalyst by bringing groups together in partnership to leverage assets to their maximum effectiveness. Program partners include nonprofits, community organizations, national associations, faith-based groups, the private sector and state government. A 501(c)(3) organization.	READY OR NOT! Volunteer USA Foundation Proudly Announces FREE Disaster Training After weathering hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, we’ve learned more than a few lessons from Mother Nature. We’ve compiled our lessons learned into a straight-forward 70-minute training which we call “Ready or Not.” During the training, you’ll meet the “Ready Family” and the “Ornots”, and learn not just about how to prepare your family before the storm is predicted to make landfall, but we’ll also focus on the really critical home improvements – like how to tell if your garage door is storm-proof. If you don’t know what a soffit is, this is the training for you! Your organization can learn how to provide the training material to folks in your local area - after your staff completes a train-the-trainer module. You would simply agree to host at least two trainings in the upcoming year (materials are provided free from Volunteer USA Foundation). Workshops are FREE in the southern United States, but limited. Contact Brandi Brown at brandi.brown@volunteerusafund.org or 850-562-5300. Special thanks to BP for underwriting this opportunity. Meet Sabrina – Single Mom…Hard Worker...and Now GED Graduate Volunteer USA congratulates Sabrina Lopez – who recently earned her GED after attending classes at one of Volunteer USA’s literacy academies. Achieving this educational goal is quite an accomplishment for Sabrina, who for the last several years has overcome more than her share of challenges. She dropped out of high school when her mother died two months before her high school graduation. Sabrina says she was depressed and on top of her mother’s death, she was the sole supporter of her two children, now ages ten and six. But Sabrina found hope and help at a local family literacy academy where she enrolled in classes. While tackling her coursework, Sabrina also held down three jobs - including working as a nursing assistant and in the food industry - to raise her family. She says the family literacy academy paved the way for her to pursue her educational dreams and a better life for the sake of her children. “I want my kids to finish school. I want them to go to college. I want to be a role model,” Lopez said. Sabrina is one of just hundreds of parent-students who hope to continue their learning and achieve greater job opportunities. She is now planning to take classes at a local community college. With your generosity, many more individuals like Sabrina can further their education, get better paying jobs and strengthen their own families. We hope you’ll consider investing in some of them. To learn how you can help the Family Literacy Initiative please call for a free copy of our new brochure 850.562.5300 or visit www.flafamilyliteracy.org/. Florida Volunteers Can Help Family Literacy Academies Cash In! Volunteer USA has just announced a matching grant program to help bring more money into local communities for approved family literacy initiatives. Since these dollars are tied directly to community support, we’re urging people to get out and pitch in to help an approved academy in their community. To qualify, literacy academies must secure help from local residents to provide volunteer hours or cash donations during 2008-2009. Volunteer hours can include anything from literacy tutoring or office help, to web design or book keeping expertise. Here is how it works: $15.00 paid per hour for each volunteer hour that directly supports academy’s literacy efforts. Up to $15,000 in dollar for dollar matching funds for cash donations from new donors or verification that current donor increased contribution over previous year. Up to $4,000 in dollar matching funds for cash donations that fund scholarships for a family - or family members - in a local literacy program. Be a helping hand; your contributions can help a family literacy academy receive as much as $47,000 additional dollars for FY 2010. Visit www.flafamilyliteracy.org for a list of approved academies. CATCH THE VOLUNTEER SPIRIT! At Volunteer USA we firmly believe that the spirit of volunteerism is at the very heart of what our work is all about – people helping people. Our own volunteer team is a perfect example of partnering great people with a great cause. We are grateful for the assistance and creative juices we receive from some of our most dedicated volunteers who help produce the Foundation’s websites, ads and printed materials: DDB’s incredibly talented advertising team (http://www.ddb.com/) Our websites are designed by: Doug Drake, Exploritech (http://www.exploritech.com/) and Alan Hanstein, Paragon New Media (http://www.pnmi.com/main/) We’d also like to express our thanks to Darden Restaurants for providing hospitality and a great lunch to Florida’s state mentor coordinators this summer. Darden Restaurants has been an avid supporter and underwriter of the mentoring program for the past eight years.