One Brick in DC

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

Check out President Obama’s proclamation regarding National Volunteer Week: http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/newsroom/releases_detail.asp?tbl_pr_id=1700

President’s Volunteer Service Award

The President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation (the Council) was established in 2003 to recognize the valuable contributions volunteers are making in our communities and encourage more people to serve. One of the first action steps taken by the Council was to create the President’s Volunteer Service Award as a way to thank the millions of Americans who take the time each year to help out their community, be it mentoring unprivileged and at-risk youth, picking up trash at a local park, lending a helping hand to the homeless, or any of the hundreds of thousands of other activities that folks do each year out of the kindness of their own heart.

In the Council’s own words, “recognizing and honoring volunteers sets a standard for service, encourages a sustained commitment to civic participation, and inspires others to make service a central part of their lives.” One Brick supports that Council’s initiatives and, as such, is a certifying organization of the President’s Volunteer Service Award. Each year, One Brick combs it’s database to find the qualifying volunteers and submits those names to the Council.

In 2009, the DC One Brick chapter had 18 individuals receive this award. Congrats!!! Receiving the award were:

Bronze (100-249 hours) – Ledy E, Christina A, Whitney C, James B, Vince F, Laura D, Dennis L, Caitlin S, Brian G, Erin E, & Chrissy A,

Silver (250-499 hours) – Sheila R, Nicole V, Richard L, Sam B, Cheryl M & Kevin F

Gold (500+ hours) – Jen K!!!!

One Brick is appreciative of all the hard work that our volunteers put in each year, whether it by 3 hours, 25 hours, or 500 hours. A special “Thank you” goes out to the individuals above for setting aside so much of their time each year. We hope that we’ll see more of you on this list for 2010!!!

Volunteering: By The Numbers

In recent years, we have seen the idea of service to one’s community become much more prominent in the media, although I think many of us have experienced it in one way or another over the course of our lives.

The DC Chapter of One Brick had over 1100 volunteers in 2009, and nationwide, One Brick helped connect over 7000 people to their communities through volunteering. My pride for One Brick swells when I see those numbers! What a great group of people!

I thought it would be interesting to highlight volunteering in our country by the numbers. One Brick volunteers are one piece of the volunteering pie in the US. How big is the whole pie? Are we talking 14”, 16”, 20”??? Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their annual report on volunteering in the US. To see the press release, as well as the complete data, click here: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm.

According to the BLS study, 63.4 million Americans over the age of 18 volunteered at least once between September 2008 and September 2009. That’s 26.8% of the population (again, over 18), or roughly 1 in every 4 adults. If you are reading this blog, there is a good chance you’ve volunteered with One Brick recently, so yes, you can count yourself as one of this 26.8%!

How does this compare to past years? The rate has held pretty steady. Back in 2005, it was 28.8%; in 2006, it dropped to 26.6%, and has held steady since. Personally, I was a slightly shocked, thinking the rate would be higher, but I suppose when you consider that it’s 1 in 4 adults, it does bring it into perspective a bit.

The BLS report breaks down the data into a number of different categories, but one in particular that I wanted to highlight was total annual hours spent volunteering. Of the 63.4 million Americans who volunteer last year:

• 21.1% volunteer 1-14 hours (5.6% of population over 18)
• 25.5% volunteered 15-49 hours (6.8% of population over 18)
• 15.3% volunteered 50-99 hours (4.1% of population over 18)
• 27.5% volunteered 100-499 hours (7.4% of population over 18)
• 5.7% volunteered 500 hours (1.5% of population over 18)

Many of our volunteers put in 10, 20, 30 or more hours each year and considering the numbers, every One Brick volunteer is part of a very special group!!

-KevinF