Community/Volunteer Involvement

The volunteer program of ABC Head Start is based on the premise that a successful program includes meaningful community involvement and those community members, acting as volunteers, are an integral part of service provision. The Board of Directors, management and staff demonstrate strong support of this concept.

On a monthly basis we average 60+ volunteers, with the peak number being over 80. Throughout the year a total of 100 volunteers donate significant amounts of time to ABC Head Start. Classroom volunteers donate a total of over 4,000 hours per year. Non-classroom volunteers donate approximately 2,000 hours for a total of over 6,000 logged volunteer hours. This translates into 4 full time positions. At a rate of $10 per hour the monetary value of these volunteers exceeds $60,000.

In addition, there are many hidden hours donated to the agency by participants in various events, including the Scarecrow Festival, the Christmas Hamper project and the Literacy Backpack project. Staff and Board members of ABC Head Start also contribute countless hours of unrecorded volunteer time.

Volunteers represent various segments of society, education, age and culture. Individuals are motivated to volunteer for various reasons However, volunteer program evaluations show that most volunteers feel they get more out of the volunteer experience than they contribute. Many volunteers take advantage of our offer for letters of reference.