ike most people and organizations in the world, the Office of Volunteer Programs (OVP) at Illinois is navigating a new normal in pandemic. Most of our contact with students, university members, and community groups is virtual, our annual Volunteer Fair was transformed into a Zoom conference with a smaller number of community agencies, our donation drives are virtual, and we are focused on virtual service education with students, scholarship groups, and registered student organizations. Many local agencies remain closed to volunteers or may entertain a very small number of them, so there is no better time like the present to focus on strengthening student competency and application of sustainable volunteerism, volunteer etiquette, and cultural awareness.
The OVP designed the We Are Illini Volunteers Preparedness Course, WAIV, over Summer 2020. Though WAIV is not mandatory to engage in service at Illinois, any student volunteer, faculty, or staff member is encouraged to participate in WAIV before they begin their service work in communities. The volunteer experience is intentional and meaningful when volunteers understand the issues and needs of community, realize how community agencies operate to responsibly mitigate needs on a regular basis, and implement long term plans to work with neighbors and friends to solve real world challenges. WAIV prepares volunteers to encounter people and places unique to themselves and encourages their use of empathy, humility, and awareness to connect to, learn from, and support each other. WAIV reminds university volunteers of the need to be polished and professional at volunteer sites, so they can be trusted to use their reliability, ethics, and competence for the benefit of the common good.
Over the 2019-2020 academic year, Illinois volunteers reported 4,061 hours of service, across 88 service projects, to the OVP. We connected 186 new students to volunteer opportunities in Champaign and Urbana. Was your student engaged in service last year? If not, encourage them to connect to Volunteer Programs.
In 2020-2021, COVID-19 will reduce hours and projects for us, as we focus on student and community safety first. However, the virtual trainings we've planned for volunteers, that also include lessons on civic, moral, social responsibility, and active citizenship, and the time we’ll spend connecting volunteers, virtually, to organizations for service education, ensures that volunteers engage with communities on deeper, sustainable levels, in our new normal; this is our silver lining.
Please encourage your student to connect with the Office of Volunteer Programs for virtual service opportunities we're offering for the 2020-2021 school year, or to find the service registered student organization that would be a good fit for them. We also oversee two student scholarships, the Barbara Seaquist Williams internship and the Kiely Volunteer Illini Project Fund, and would love to see your students in the future applicant pool. For more information on Volunteer Programs, students can contact ovp@illinois.edu or 217-333-7424, Monday through Friday from 9am-5pm.
