Staff, wire reports
CHICAGO - After getting pink-slipped from his cement-plant job a week before Christmas, Nick Maloney indulged in some moping.
For a week or two, the 27-year-old from Fairborn watched TV, played video games and slept until noon. But then he began to consider more meaningful ways to spend his newfound downtime: volunteering with a suicide-prevention organization.
''It's very rewarding,'' said Maloney, who lost both his stepbrother and his sister to suicide. He is now considering making his volunteer job permanent. ''There's a definite possibility of getting into this full-time. I just have to see what doors this opens.''
Nonprofit groups around the country are reporting record-setting volunteer interest, helped in part by high unemployment that has given people more free time and resume gaps to fill. Charity groups also attribute the rise to President Barack Obama's call to community service and a general sense of wanting to help others through tough economic times.
Locally, the increase in volunteers has been a blessing. ''Primarily, because of what is happening, we are getting people in with more diverse backgrounds,'' said Juanita James, assistant to the executive director, SCOPE. ''They have a lot more to bring to the table and that, in turn, allows us to develop new programs.''
Fact Box
Hoping to serve? Here are some ways to find volunteer opportunities in your community:
l Contact Juanita James and the SCOPE Center by calling 330-399-8846.
l Contact Judy Campbell and the Warren Family Mission by calling 330-394-5437.
l VolunteerMatch.org is the Internet's largest volunteer network, linking visitors to some 63,000 nonprofit groups that fit their interests, talents and locations.
l Chicagocares.org links people to some 200 volunteer projects in the Chicago area.
l Nycares.org connects New York residents with nearly 1,000 nonprofit volunteer opportunities.
l America's Second Harvest, now called Feeding America, matches volunteers with hunger-relief groups in their area at feedingamerica.org. Click ''volunteer'' and type in your zip code.
l Learn more about Senior Corps and AmeriCorps through the Corporation for National & Community Service at nationalservice.org.
l Learn more about the Peace Corps at peacecorps.gov.
- Staff, wire reports
According to James, the rise in volunteers has filled a void, but the reason for their availability remains a two-sided coin. ''The need was here, and we needed to fill that void. It's unfortunate that a tragedy is giving us the relief that we needed,'' said James.
With an influx of between 20 and 25 volunteers, the SCOPE Center has been able to implement several new programs for their senior members.
Another volunteer driven organization, the Warren Family Mission, has also seen an increase in those who have lost their jobs but are willing to help others in need. ''We don't have that many, and we are trying to recruit, but I do know that a few of the newest ones are out of work,'' said Judy Campbell, volunteer coordinator at the Warren Family Mission.
Although new volunteers have been making themselves available, organizations such as the Warren Family Mission remain in need of volunteers. ''We can use volunteers. We are trying to implement new programs, and we could use new volunteers that can come on a regular basis,'' said Campbell.
The Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that tracks volunteer numbers, does not have statistics from the most recent months. Typically volunteer ranks shrink in a recession, but an estimated 1 million people participated in January's Martin Luther King Day of Service, twice as many as in 2008, said spokesman Sandy Scott.
His group and others are seeing evidence of a volunteer surge:
l Second Harvest Heartland, the St. Paul-based hunger-relief organization, signed up 4,000 volunteers in the last four months, more than it had in the previous year and a half, said spokeswoman Joan Wadkins.
l Applications to AmeriCorps, the national service group, more than tripled to about 9,700 applications this February compared to last, and applications for the Peace Corps spiked 37 percent during the days surrounding Obama's inauguration.
l Twice as many volunteers as usual signed up in January for Chicago Cares, a group that links volunteers with hundreds of projects across the city, and affiliate New York Cares also doubled its number of new volunteers year-to-year.
''We can't open the doors wide enough,'' said Gary Bagley, executive director of New York Cares. ''Everything we're doing is full. Our orientations are booked three weeks in advance.''
Bagley's group has started surveying new volunteers about the reasons for their interest. Some 30 percent say they've had a change in their work situation. An equal number report being unemployed. About 25 percent say they're heeding Obama's call to service. And the others say they want to help those hit hard by the financial crisis.
''It's an interesting sort of harmonic convergence,'' Bagley said.
The flood of volunteers has been so great that Second Harvest Heartland set up an all-volunteer ''executive council'' to come up with ways to mobilize all its new workers. Chicago Cares has added more daytime programs, a good fit for unemployed volunteers. And Bagley admits feeling the squeeze as his group tries to find work for the flood of new helpers.
He fears losing good volunteers if he can't make the experience a positive one for them.
''You'll get a lot of people in the door and then they're going to be done,'' Bagley said.
Anne Abbott is part of Second Harvest Heartland's council of volunteers - a good fit for the organizational effectiveness specialist from Bloomington, Minn.
Abbott, 57, had tutored and mentored kids for years but decided to step up her volunteerism after work at her own business slowed to a trickle and she closed up shop at the end of December.
''It's such good work. It's so meaningful,'' she said. ''I found myself trying to get the corporate full-time work, turning myself into a pretzel to meet their needs. And I thought to myself, 'What am I doing this for? Go with the nonprofit.'''
Now, Abbott is using her volunteer work, in part, to ''re-network.''
''Even though I don't have anything, I know I'll get something. I just know it,'' she said.
It may not be their primary motivation, but volunteering is a savvy move for those who are unemployed or underemployed, Scott said.
''It's a way to stay active, connected, hone your professional skills or learn new ones. Or have a door opened to potential jobs,'' he said.
Abbot has no regrets about closing her business. In fact, she said, ''I sleep better.
''There is such a need and I don't even have a clue as to what the need is, it's so big and it's so tremendous. It's overwhelming,'' she said. ''So, if I can make a small difference, then it's all worth it.''