Affiliate Spotlight:

Community Connection of Northeast Georgia has as its mission to nurture, develop and maintain information and systems that empower individuals and communities to access needed resources and services. Given this charge, it wasn't much of a leap for the 25-year old community organization to join forces with Hands On Georgia in establishing a Hands On Georgia affiliate to meet the volunteer and civic needs of Athens-Clarke and Oconee Counties.

Upon receiving the Hands On Georgia State Challenge Grant in October 2006 combined with other local funding, Community Connections launched Hands On Northeast Georgia. The new Hands On Georgia affiliate officially opened its doors in December and operates as a program of Community Connection. Leading the program is Art Ordoqui, formerly of AIDS Athens. Ordoqui wasted no time scheduling volunteer orientations and establishing relationships with partner agencies.

Hands On Northeast Georgia currently has more than 40 partner agencies with an excess of 1,500 volunteer opportunities. The new affiliate also hosted its first day of service in June, Hands On With Dad, where 21 kids and 17 parents were engaged in service projects to celebrate Father's Day. The event was a great step into the community and received a lot of coverage in the local media.

One of Hands On Northeast Georgia’s partner agencies is the Athens Area Homeless Shelter. Volunteers are a large part of the shelter's success and managing schedules and monthly calendar activities became considerably easier with Hands On Northeast Georgia's website. The shelter uses the site to direct their volunteer's experience from initial registration to follow-up reminders. The organization takes full advantage of the website, asking all of its volunteers to use it to sign up for service projects at the shelter.

"Though we're the new kid on the block, we're doing our best to make a significant impact in Athens-Clarke County," said Ordoqui. "With the introduction of our website, the weekly volunteer orientations and our agency-targeted seminars on volunteer management, the 'hands on' concept will be as popular in this community as Uga is."

For more information on volunteering Hands On Northeast Georgia, visit HandsOnNortheastGeorgia.org or call 706-353-1313.

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