Information: www.volunteergwinnett.net or 770-822-7955
In the last year, Gwinnett residents have given their spare time to their county in record numbers. They have showed up to work in government offices, clean up public spaces, conduct tours of historic sites and run recreational programs. By the end of 2013, 850,000 hours of volunteer manpower had been tracked through the county’s Volunteer Gwinnett program.
The 2.5-year-old program was designed to link Gwinnett citizens with volunteer opportunities that have direct connections to the county government. While some needs may be for the worthy causes one often identifies as needing volunteers - such as the Meals on Wheels program - others are as basic as helping out in the district attorney’s office or being an administrative assistant for the sheriff’s department.
“Our volunteers work with staff, and they can do that one time, for a day, for a couple of hours, or just twice a year - whatever suits their schedule,” said Kay Sibetta, the program coordinator. “Some are with us on an ongoing basis to assist with specific projects. But whether they’re skill-based volunteers we can use in a specific place, like communications or parks and rec, they’re interacting with the community.”
Volunteers range from students doing internships to retired folks looking to keep active. Loganville resident Tom Davidson signed up to help out in the county’s support services office after he lost a job and found himself with a good deal of free time.
“I was bored and went on the website where I saw they needed help in the real estate division,” he said. “I had sold real estate, so I volunteered on a project that took about 16 hours a week. Though I wasn’t doing it to get a job, when one came open in the department, I was hired. So I like to think it was fate that I came here.”
Sibetta came on board almost three years ago to organize what had been, until then, a scattered assortment of projects and volunteers.
“The county has worked with volunteers for many years, but not all departments were fully engaged,” she said. “The first thing I did was an assessment of who was doing what and why. We now have volunteer liaisons in 20 departments who help determine what the needs are. For instance, what the police department needs is different from what the information technology department needs. But our common goal is the same: to get the community more engaged.”
The parks and rec department has the highest number of volunteers who pitch in on a range of projects, from beautification and youth sports to planning activities and staffing special events and festivals. Before the program was organized, it was difficult for residents to find out that those opportunities were available, said Sibetta.
“Now, it’s easy to get to,” she said. “We can put up a job description of what we’re looking for, the department it’s in and who the coordinating person is. There’s also a section for project requests, so if someone in the community sees a need that the county can fill, they put that request in, and I work with a department to facilitate it. It’s another tool for residents to become more engaged.”
Volunteers also log their hours, which is how Sibetta knows the program is exceeding its goals.
“Our goal was to have 1 million hours by 2015, and we reached that last year,” she said. “For 2014, our goal is another 850,000 hours.”
Those hours are key to keeping a county as large as Gwinnett going. “It really takes the entire county to do it,” Sibetta said.
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