Director's Corner
 |
I guess it’s finally time to update the directors corner, 1 because of all that’s been happening and 2 because the old one says Happy New Year and it’s August already (maybe I should just leave it up for a couple more months?) Much has happened in the last 8 months so here are some of the highlights in no particular order. |
We have developed several high impact volunteer positions and begun utilizing the advanced skills of a couple of volunteers.
We have a Project Manager who is working with us to develop the Naturalization Program that would help eligible immigrants prepare for the immigration exam and interview. He is doing research, developing metrics and creating an outline of a program we can use for funding proposals. We had used some of his work in applying to CNCS (our federal funder) for a PNS Grant but did not make the final cut in awards. We will continue to develop the proposal and look for other sources of support to get this moving forward.
Speaking of looking for sources of support, one of the other high impact opportunities we are using is a Grant Researcher. A volunteer comes into the office once a week and meets with a different staff person to develop a list of outcomes we submit with the Federal work plans for the program. Each Signature Program (Literacy, Senior Health and Safety) has an initiatives work plan where the program can explore new opportunities in addressing compelling community needs, or develop new offerings for existing programs. Using the internet, she then looks for funding opportunities that will match with goals of the specific programs especially for imitative programs that are successful and we want to move from the pilot phase into a full offering.
Our Senior Health and Safety program is taking advantage of a couple of nurses in developing new offerings. These medical professionals are bringing a valuable perspective to programs like the Diabetes Workshop, and Clutter Free Home.
We have finished one grant cycle and started our new fiscal at the beginning of July. It’s hard to believe but Family Services of Central Mass has completed a full 3 year funding cycle. They have also been awarded tentative funding for the next 3 years of the program which will be turning 40 soon! RSVP as a national program was started in 1971, Worcester received its first federal grant in the fall of 1972. There is documentation that shows the ‘Senior Service Corps’ which was a forerunner of RSVP in Worcester was started in 1963 but more history later.
In 2013 all RSVP programs across the county will go through re-competition which means any qualified non-profit or municipal organization can submit a proposal to sponsor the program. This year the grant application was taken through some of the quantitative evaluation steps that will be used once re-competition becomes official so additional efforts and a couple of rewrites were necessary before the application was approved.
This year’s national conference was in New Your City the end of June. Most staff attended and had a productive week of workshops and touring of the city. I think I must have walked all 11 miles of Manhattan at least twice, but looking back I did have a good time despite high humidity and temps that never dropped below 90. The best part was looking for the hole in the wall eateries, places off the beaten path that were not outrageously priced (we did eat good).
After returning from New York we had to close the FY ’10 grant and will soon be doing financial closure on the full 3 year funding cycle. In closing a grant much data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted into a format that can be simply understood. For all of you that sent back the Volunteer Survey’s; Thank you this data was analyzed and results are linked from the Home page.
Now that it’s August and thing are slowing down a bit, we are finally getting caught up. (Maybe I should write the next Director’s Corner?)
If you are in the Worcester Senior Center stop on by and say hello! We love to hear about your volunteer experience. If you are looking for additional opportunities or just want to explore what’s new to get involved with give us a call!
And once again THANK YOU for stepping up to the challenge and volunteering.
Ray