Statements

Mission

Connecting Wilson County residents with volunteer needs to create more efficient and effective change for our community.

Background

The history of the Volunteer Network actually began back in 2020. In March 2020, the Wilson County community experienced significant damage to homes, schools, and businesses. In the days following the tornado, there was a mobilization effort with over 4,000 volunteers that registered through a portal established by Mount Juliet Police Department. Community leaders and groups from across the county worked together to coordinate a weekend of recovery efforts. Regina Girten and Jamie Tyner, both serving as outreach directors within their churches, met as they assisted in organizing these efforts.

Following this weekend, several community leaders and groups continued to gather to learn about best practices in long-term recovery through the United Methodist Committee on Relief and the Salvation Army. Initially, these efforts were occurring in both Lebanon and Mount Juliet. Under the direction of the Wilson County Mayor's office, these two groups merged together into one: Recover Wilson. Recover Wilson served as the Long Term Recovery Group for Wilson County for the Tornado of 2020, Flood of 2021, and Tornado of 2022.As these efforts continued to settle, Regina and Jamie began meeting to discuss their work in serving Wilson County. As they talked about the community partners their churches supported, they realized they were duplicating some efforts. This led to them reaching out to other churches and nonprofits serving the community to begin meeting to strategize together on creating a more holistic and equitable change within our community. The idea of the Volunteer Network was born from some of the initial meetings. In collaboration with Hands On Nashville and Hands On Connect, the Volunteer Network has developed an online system for community members to connect with volunteer needs posted by local nonprofits, businesses, and churches. It is Regina and Jamie's hope to create a landing pad where community members know they can come to serve their community in ongoing needs and in times of disaster. We are here to assist in building bridges to connect nonprofits, churches, and businesses with the broader Wilson County Community to meet their volunteer needs. Additionally, we provide volunteer management for Wilson County in times of disaster.

Impact

This year we launched our online platform and currently have 27 nonprofits within Wilson County utilizing the platform. Our goal is to have 50 by the end of 2023. We have had 200 residents create profiles on the platform and based on our organizations streamlining their volunteer management through our system are projected to see over 15,000 hours of volunteerism through the platform. Wilson County is growing at a fast rate and with that growth comes an increase in organization needs and new residents looking to serve their community. We believe that we create more sustainable and equitable change when we do things together. Our key strategies to accomplish our goals are:

1. Leveraging the relationships developed since long term recovery from the disasters our community has experienced since 2020. These disasters not only identified the need for a centralized hub for volunteerism in times of disaster, but the growth of the community has identified the need for a more streamlined hub for volunteerism and a more robust volunteer management platform for ongoing needs. Additionally, our nonprofits have asked for access to a more robust and centralized space for volunteer needs in the community.
2. VTN has entered into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with Hands on Nashville, which has utilized the same volunteer management system in Nashville, as an affiliate of Points of Light, for over 30 years. This Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement provides us with business and financial consultation and essentially classifies us as a program of Hands on Nashville as we build out into our own autonomous nonprofit.
3. The Hands on Connect platform is free for businesses, churches and nonprofits making it easily accessible for the growing agencies within our county.
4. Partnering with Wilson County Government and Wilson Emergency Management Agency to be the streamlined hub for volunteerism in times of disaster.
5. Organizing a Wilson County Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), a national mobilization effort allowing communities a robust coalition to mobilize long term recovery groups in times of disaster.
6. Seeking to provide workshops for businesses, churches, nonprofits and residents to train in best practices in volunteerism and disaster recovery and response.
7. Creating volunteer experiences for groups and businesses seeking to volunteer within Wilson County.
8. Creating a page on our website for our community partners to post in-kind donation needs, so that we have a streamlined space for donation needs in the community.

Needs

1. Volunteers creating profiles and signing up to volunteer.
2. Volunteers filling out their skills assessment forms.
3. Volunteers desiring to serve as 'Disaster Team Leaders' in moments of disaster.
4. Organizations desiring to partner to post their volunteer opportunities on the VTN platform.

CEO Statement

The Volunteer Network believes in building bridges for change within our community. As Wilson County continues to grow, having a centralized space for ongoing volunteer needs will allow us to maintain and improve the quality of life for our residents. A win for us is that we would not be needed, because that means that our community is plugged into the needs of the community and those needs are being met. We want to provide a hub for volunteerism so that our community can grow their services to residents in need. Although we have been formally 'Volunteer Network' for a year, we have been doing this work for over three years and have seen the vitality in creating a centralized hub for our community.

We hope you will join us on our mission to connect residents with volunteer needs in Wilson County. We are better together!

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Community Improvement, Capacity Building  - Community Improvement, Capacity Building N.E.C.
Secondary Category:	-
Tertiary Category:	-

Areas Served

TN - Wilson