The Next Step...Input Wanted

Refugee work continues but with everyone enrolled in school or English classes and taking the bus to appointments etc, the move towards functioning independently is speeding along. It's great to see the families making friends in their community and becoming more confident. Our 6-month commitment to them will be over in two more months, but I know we'll all want to keep in touch and continue to support through visits, conversation and friendship.

As things wind down it's time to focus on the next step and I am keen to get as much input on this as possible. With fresh donations on hand and moral support I'm excited to see what can be accomplished in this first year. The general idea is to form a partnership between a staffing agency(ies) and volunteer programs in order to use income from customers to subsidize wages to people doing volunteer work. This means charitable organizations who cannot afford to pay staff but rely heavily on volunteers can get the help they need. On the other end people who want to work in more meaningful jobs but need income can do so. I'd like to extend that by offering job skill training and job experience to unemployed and un-skilled workers. Organizations relying on "volunteers" should be more willing to provide a bit of work experience in exchange for labor which will hopefully open doors to more skilled, better paid employment for these workers. There are so many variable possibilities that we should be able to accomplish our goals through some means. If need be we may have to start our own staffing agency, and there would hopefully be tax benefits for our paying customers as incentive to participate. You can imagine many other options I'm sure.

I've never started a business, but have worked in many small ones including staffing agencies. If any of you have experience or enthusiasm to help develop these ideas please share your thoughts via email (volunteerevolution@gmail.com) and lets get things moving.