It is National Volunteer Week! This week presents an opportunity for individuals, families, nonprofit organizations and government entities alike to celebrate the ordinary people who accomplish extraordinary things through service. National Volunteer Week embodies the energy and power volunteers evoke on a daily basis as they lead by example—not only encouraging the people they help, but motivating others to serve as well. This week is about inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities. It’s about demonstrating to the nation that by working together, we have the ability to meet our challenges and accomplish our goals.
So take action! Encourage your network and community to go out and demonstrate the power of working together. This is a perfect opportunity to get involved with the work of United Way of Salt Lake and see your dollars in action. To learn more about volunteering with United Way please visit: www.uw.org or call Brian Guyer at 801-736-7715.
Here are a couple great volunteer opportunities to get you started…
The YMCA of Greater Salt Lake
Contact: 801-466-6299 (Michelle)
Take an hour out of your day to help our youth participants with math, science, history, reading and other fun subjects. If you would like to volunteer please go to ymcautah.org and fill out our volunteer application.
English Skills Learning Center
Contact: 801-328-5608 (Beth)
English Tutor for Refugees and Immigrants
The English Skills Learning Center is currently looking for volunteers to tutor adult refugees and immigrants who are have a strong desire to learn English. We serve over three hundred refugees and immigrants in the area right now, with the list of waiting students growing daily! Volunteers can be involved in one-on-one tutoring, small group classes, tutoring students working towards U.S. citizenship, or Empowering Parents classes – teaching parents of young children English skills as well as how to become better, more involved parents.
Our services are completely free to the student and we offer our classes at times and locations that are convenient to both the tutor and the student(s). Many of our classes are taught in libraries, community centers, apartment complex community rooms, elementary schools, and people’s homes.
Requirements: No foreign language skills or teaching experience necessary. We ask our volunteers to meet with their students twice a week for an hour each, and to commit to tutoring for a minimum of 60 hours. We have a twelve-hour training for all of our volunteers and we provide our volunteers with all of the necessary teaching materials and resources.
