You might recognize Danielle Brady from the Strengthening Service Breakfast on Thursday, October 11, 2018, where she served as the "Host with the Most."
When Danielle isn’t volunteering for MAVA, she is the Volunteer Services Manager at the Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery, a role she’s be in since 2008.
The Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery Volunteer Program has over 2,000 volunteers come through their doors every year. Last year volunteers gave over 25,000 hours of their time - that is the full time equivalent of 12 employees. Their volunteer opportunities include working directly with the children, cooking or making snacks for the kids (saving the nursery over $85,000 in food/staff costs), doing enrichment activities, administrative work, yard work, building maintenance, medical care, trainings, speaking engagements, and volunteer fairs. In their child care program, they have a volunteer retention rate of nearly 80%.
When Danielle first started at the crisis nursery, she worked as a supervisor of staff in direct care for the children so she worked alongside volunteers. She started to get burned out, yet still had passion for the work so leading volunteers was the next best thing. She was able to continue working toward the nursery’s mission, but wouldn't have to have such a direct role. AND since she had worked directly with the children, she had the knowledge of what to look for when recruiting volunteers. “It gives me an unique perspective that I have found really useful in my role today.”