The Heartbeat of Foster Village Charlotte: A Tribute to Our Volunteers
By Emma Lyons
The Role of Volunteers at Foster Village Charlotte
You’ve heard it a million times, ”It takes a village to raise a child.” Did you also know it takes a village to sustain Foster Village Charlotte? Those villagers are our amazing volunteers. As the volunteer coordinator at Foster Village Charlotte, one of my favorite parts is welcoming people to the village during volunteer training. I get to see the excitement on their face when they tell me why they’re choosing FVC. From there, the onboarding process allowed me to get to know each person a little more before they showed up for their first volunteer opportunity. Then again and again as they dive in more deeply. Others have been here since the beginning, such as Emily Jones, Mary Baldauf, Jeanne Efaw, and Jeni Lawson (and more!). I see a few of these folks regularly and am fortunate to consider them friends. I love to hear their stories, celebrate their wins, and hold space for the hard times. We’re all human. But somehow, the best humans found their way to FVC.
The Transformative Impact of Our Volunteers in 2023
Not every person can serve each month or in multiple ways, but that doesn’t discount their impact on our Village. Every single task makes an impact. In 2023, our volunteers served over 900 hours, worth $29,160.60.
183 meals were made and delivered to the deep freezer for families to access when needed. Jennifer Weisner is one of the volunteers who prepares homemade dinners in aluminum trays. She has been doing this monthly for years! It’s incredible to see the dishes she and her family create together, with love, for families who need it!
23 volunteers made 78 Welcome Pack deliveries to over 200 children. (That’s an average of 2.5 packs per delivery!) Elisabeth Watts was a longtime volunteer (she recently joined our staff), taking on most of those deliveries. She was the person who dropped off the packs and other supplies to a kinship grandmother when she unexpectedly took in six of her grandchildren (!!!) early last year. Elisabeth says her large SUV was packed with beds, toys, car seats, and other extra essentials for this family.
260 hours were spent with children in a childcare capacity, either during a support group, at the HUB for a Parents Time Out, or playday. Kelly Schnitzmeier was there every month for these kids and their families, consistently showing up in her gentle way to put children at ease.
Two groups from Citizens Church volunteer monthly to clean the two HUB houses, the Connection Cottage and Resource Center, so they are fresh for the families.
We’ve had others come out to blow leaves and clean up the outdoor properties, welcome families at Sweetwater Farm in April, pack event and fundraising supplies, host a presentation table in the community, build Ikea furniture, and more.
My Volunteer Journey
We all have an origin story, a pivotal time in our lives we can recall when things clicked. I was ten years old the first time I asked my mom if I could volunteer somewhere. It was a fall Sunday afternoon in 1997, and like most fifth graders during that time, I was playing soccer. This particular game day field was near an assisted living facility for seniors. Right now, I can’t remember why I was struck with the urgency to volunteer with that population, but during our conversation later that day, my mom told me there was a home just around the corner from our house. A week later, my best friend and I walked into Barton’s Adult Home in Elmira, New York, and asked to speak with the director. Then, for the next two years, we, later just I, would spend Wednesday afternoons with the seniors. Sometimes, we’d walk from room to room chatting with Maude, Hal, or Alice while they shared stories and reminisced about their lives. Other weeks, we’d call Bingo in the dining room before dinner. I haven’t thought about this in years, but now, as I look back, I can see (and smell) it all so clearly! Unbeknownst to me at the time, this would set me on a path to working in nonprofits with volunteers over twenty years later.
In 2018, I began a volunteer role with my church in outreach. My responsibilities were to oversee the organizational liaisons to plan volunteer opportunities and events at each of the 22 partners in the Uptown area. I made it a point to visit each nonprofit to learn their mission and challenges so we could work together to meet their needs with our volunteers and resources. Did you know that in Charlotte alone, there are 690 nonprofit organizations? (Thanks, ShareCLT.) That is 690 passion projects that moved someone to make a difference in the spaces surrounding animals, fighting homelessness, providing access to fresh food, making art accessible to children, supporting families and children experiencing foster care (wink wink), and SO many more. All of these organizations depend on volunteers to help them complete their mission. Volunteers make the world go 'round, from the feet on the ground to the folks on the board. Volunteering is a selfless way to show up for the causes that speak to our hearts.
Being in this role was a valuable experience! Frankly, before this, I wasn’t aware of what it took to plan volunteer opportunities. I thought we’d just show up and do the thing, and life would go on, like when I was ten. Oh Nelly, it is so much more than that! Each place has its own high-pressing needs and ways of doing things. It also requires a lot of planning for the staff at the organization to make sure there is space, they have the supplies, the staff is aware of the plan and how that may impact daily operations, and most importantly, they have the correct number of volunteers to complete the task at hand. This role with the church led to my first Charlotte nonprofit job, then to another, and I am currently with FVC.
How to Join Our Volunteer Family
Since the very beginning of Foster Village Charlotte in 2018, we have relied on the generosity of our community to help us meet the needs of children and families experiencing foster care. They were there to organize donation drives to equip families with the tangible items they needed, to connect others to the movement and to receive services, and to advocate by supporting the founders by spreading awareness about the foster care system. Now, six years later, our volunteers are doing those things and more. Your love and support make it possible for FVC to meet the needs of our community. And there is room for you, too! (If you’re ready to learn more, complete this quick form, and we’ll be in touch!)
We look forward to working with you!
