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Mission
The mission of the nonprofit Volunteer USA Foundation is to strengthen the United States by meeting community and family needs through volunteerism and community service.
Volunteer USA Foundation advocates for youth mentoring and literacy programs as the heart of how we improve families’ lives; as well as creating programs to fill critical caps in communities where young people need support. We believe by educating children and their parents we empower them, and by motivating others to give back we grow our movement to create brighter futures for all children.
With the support of generous donors and committed volunteers our programs are benefiting young lives across the southeast. Volunteer USA:
• Helps struggling young readers enjoy one-one-one mentoring sessions with a teen who becomes their role model,
• Creates childhood libraries in homes that once were barren of books,
• Trains teens to respond to emergencies and disasters when their family members, schools and communities need help most,
• Awards scholarships to children and their parents who need a second chance at building a bright future
• Teaches English and Sign language so that children and their parents can communicate at school, work and in their neighborhoods
Volunteer USA programs are touching hundreds-of-thousands of young lives. And, at a time when so many of our children and their families are feeling the burdens of the country’s economic downturn, we are inspired to do even more to help.
Key Facts
Geographic areas served:
Southeast United States
Results to date:
Volunteer USA Foundation is a non-profit organization that advocates for education programs as the heart of how we improve families’ lives. We do this by reaching out to local communities through partnerships with other caring nonprofits, businesses, schools and volunteers to improve educational opportunities to families. Here’s a sample of what we’ve accomplished:
We believe in second chances and our Family Literacy Academies help thousands of moms and dads to learn English as a Second Language or to earn their GED while their child is also learning. We’re proud to share that our parents increase helping their children with home work by a whopping 400%, and that the children in our programs while they start our behind their peers academically with our extra schooling and instruction enter kindergarten on par with their peers.
We’re particularly proud of Teen Trendsetters™ Reading Mentors a teen-led high school program begun in Florida and as of January 2009 operating in 12 states. We train the teens on reading research and leadership and help them establish programs in their high schools. Teen Trendsetters has been honored with the Harris Wofford Award for best teen program in the nation. 69% of the Florida teens earn a Bright Futures scholarship as compared to 39% of Florida teens.
Finally, one of our other key areas is experience in long-term disaster recovery and mitigation. Most of our team helped lead the Florida Disaster Recovery Fund from 2004-2007, and have vast experience in working with disaster issues, FEMA, and related programs. We’ve taken those experiences and have developed our own training for families called “Ready or Not”; additionally in June we will launch our south-east US Disaster Recovery Fund, and we’re currently completing the website and commercials and other necessary behind-the-scenes requirements to launch such a massive undertaking.
In the past year and a half, Volunteer USA has built a formidable training team. We train on average 2000 families a month on disaster recovery, parent involvement, reading, and more. Results are based on pre and post-test evaluations; call us for more details.
Direct beneficiaries per year: 20,100
Indirect beneficiaries per year: 129,000
What your donation will allow us to do:
• Improve the reading skills of many more 2nd and 3rd graders
• Train teens as productive mentors and leaders
• Buys books for children to nurture a lifelong love of reading and learning
• Provide emergency response training to youth
• Improve a child’s chance for a fulfilling life, by teaching parents how to be a child’s “best and first” teacher
Your donation of $25 enables us to:
purchase 5 books for children participating in our programs.
Your donation of $100 enables us to:
train 10 parents on how they can prepare their child to be ready for school.
Your donation of $250 enables us to:
support a mentor/mentee match in our Teen Trendsetters Reading Mentors program.
Board Members and Affiliation:
Barney Bishop, Associated Industries of Florida
Gwynn Virostek
Tim Gage, Comcast Cable
David Griffin, David Griffin Consulting
Brad Meltzer, Best-Selling Author
William S. Simon, Wal-Mart Stores
Art Smith, Celebrity Chef
Jeb Bush, Honorary Chairman and former Governor of Florida
Key Staff
Liza McFadden, President/Founder
Elizabeth Hirst, Executive Vice President
Heather Brinkworth, Regional Program Coordinator
Stina Brockman, Administrative Assistant
Brandi Brown, Special Events Coordinator
Roxann Campbell, Director of Programs
Venita Dorsey, Finance Director
Tracey Gallagher, Regional Program Coordinator
Jaimie Hudson, Regional Program Coordinator
Jennifer Jones, Director, Deaf Family Literacy Academy
Teecy Matthews, Director of Training
Mark Nelson, Director of Strategic Partnerships
Gerri Palmer, Regional Program Coordinator
Michael Thompson, Program Coordinator
Carolyn Vega-Melendez, Development Specialist