Nine Communities Receive Hands On Georgia State Challenge Grants

During a presentation at the Georgia Summit on Volunteerism, Georgia Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Mike Beatty joined Hands On Georgia Board Chair Eric Tanenblatt in awarding nine communities with State Challenge Grants. Grants ranged from $4,500 to $10,000 and will be used for developing and promoting community volunteerism. Each community must provide a 100 percent match of the grant amount.

"We're very pleased with the programs chosen to receive state challenge grants," said Laurie Grant Nichols, Hands On Georgia CEO. "The recipients represent a broad range of communities across the state. These grants will help establish solid programs that engage volunteers and will further Hands On Georgia's mission of reaching out to all Georgians and providing them with opportunities to serve their communities."

The State Challenge Grants are allocated by the Georgia General Assembly and distributed by Hands On Georgia and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. This fiscal year, $200,000 is available to Georgia communities to build sustainable volunteer programming. This is the first round of this fiscal year's State Challenge Grants. The second round will open in January 2008 and will be awarded in March. First round grants were awarded to agencies in the cities of Athens, Cordele, Dalton, Harlem, Macon, Savannah and Tifton and to Forsyth and Thomas counties.
The city of Cordele received $4,500 and along with $10,000 grant recipients Hands On Forsyth and the city of Tifton, will use the grant in the hiring of additional staff, whose responsibilities will be to help coordinate and advance volunteer activities.

Hands On Northeast Georgia, based in Athens, took home a $10,000 grant. The plan is to increase its capacity to train volunteers and project managers, enabling expansion of the organization into new geographic areas. Currently limited to Clarke County, Hands On Northeast Georgia looks to expand its service area to include Oconee County.
In Dalton, the Hands On Georgia affiliate will use its award to help promote civic engagement in the region. Of top priority is to create a new service learning program focused on engaging students in Whitfield and Murray Counties and Dalton State College.

With its grant Hands On Harlem will update its technology, mainly the website - www.handsonharlem.org. The organization's primary means of communications is online; therefore the website is essential to its success.
Having used previous state challenge grants to expand its reach to the surrounding counties, with this $10,000 award Hands On Macon will develop a corporate volunteer program that targets small and medium-sized businesses. This new program will include a manual for corporate volunteer engagement, a council structure, volunteer leader training and a corporate volunteer project database.

In Thomasville, Hands On Thomas County will expand its youth services and encourage volunteerism among Thomas County's rapidly growing retirement community.

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