MAVA FEATURED MEMBER
An interview from MAVA Featured Member: Julie Huck, Volunteer Programs Manager, Project for Pride Living
MAVA Member since 2008
Please describe your volunteer program: PPL works with over 2,000 volunteers annually across all of our sites and programs. Our program comprises all "nonpaid human resources"-we include national service, work study, and interns, and strongly encourage volunteering by our and program graduates as a way to inspire other participants, explore career interests and build their skills and networks. Most of our volunteers work directly with youth and adult participants as mentors or tutors, but skills-based opportunities and group projects also build our capacity and allow us to engage the community in all aspects of our mission and work.
What is your role? Working with each of our programs to help them assess and formulate volunteer needs, building relationships out in the community to increase our access to the "right volunteer resource at the right time," and engaging community members from all walks of life to use their skills and passion in support of our mission.
How did you get involved in Volunteer Management? I've always worked in nonprofit (in Boston and the Bay Area) on the "services" (program management) side. One of the most enjoyable aspects was working with volunteers, and I decided to pursue it full-time, while still staying engaged with participants in any way that I could.
What does it mean to you to be a MAVA member? Access to best practices information, trainings and resources, networking…a constant stream of new ideas to help strengthen our program.
Can you recall a time when being a MAVA member directly impacted your work in your organization? What were the outcomes of MAVA’s impact? Connecting with MAVA, I learned that there were other large, complex, multiservice agencies whose volunteer-related challenges were similar to ours. I convened a group of larger multiservice agency volunteer program leaders-we meet regularly to share ideas and resources and brainstorm solutions to issues-kind of a "support group!"
Do you have any advice for new MAVA members/ leaders of volunteers? Take advantage of the wealth of knowledge within the group!
