Opportunity Details
TeamWorks: Make Your Impact! Give. Advocate. Volunteer. (age 18+) *Hands On*
Join a TeamWorks team of volunteers for a series of done-in-a-day projects led by a Hands On Greater Portland TeamWorks Leader. TeamWorks offers volunteers the opportunity to make a slightly longer-term commitment to volunteering, delve into a topic or issue-area, and get to know other volunteers in the process.
Do you have an issue that’s close to your heart that you’d like address on a deeper level? Are you excited by the thought of making a meaningful impact? How can you magnify one voice, one dollar, one pair of hands to create significant change that ripples out into the greater community?
This TeamWorks shines a spotlight on the diversity of ways one can make an impact -- whether by using your voice, your time, or your dollars -- and aims to deepen understanding of how you can effectively contribute to strengthening your community through your own circle of influence.
We will kick off the team by getting to know one another over dinner and discussion at Oregon Public House, a new nonprofit pub in NE Portland with an innovative business model designed to donate 100% of its profits to local charities. From there, our second session will take us to 211 info, where we’ll have an amazing opportunity to learning about the biggest issues facing our community through the the 211 staff and the actual voices of individuals calling in for support and resources.
Through projects at the Children’s Book Bank and the Portland Community Gardens, we will explore the many ways one can give time, from done-in-a-day volunteer projects to deeper commitments, such as skilled volunteering and board leadership. At the Oregon Food Bank, we will discuss how we can use our voice to advocate for the causes we care about -- whether among friends, through local leadership, or at the level of policy and elected officials. And throughout the course of the team, we will learn more about what it means to be a nonprofit in these fiscally challenging times, to better understand where our dollars go when we make a financial commitment to organizations we believe in.
As the TeamWorks progresses, team members will choose one issue they feel personally committed to and begin to explore how they could make a deeper impact on that issue in the months to come. By the end of the experience, each team member will create a personalized “impact plan” to identify concrete next steps in deepening their commitment and engagement in their chosen issue. The final project will bring us together to share out our action plans, support each other’s ideas, and learn from others who have already begun to walk down that path of deeper impact.
Whether you’re new to the nonprofit scene and trying to find your footing or already involved but itching to explore new ways to make your impact grow, this is the team for you!
*The $10 TeamWorks commitment fee will be waived for this team, as each team member will instead be asked to make a personally significant contribution of $10 or more to the cause they identify in their impact plan.
What is TeamWorks? TeamWorks teams consist of approximately 10-15 individuals, led by a Hands On trained volunteer leader, who commit to volunteering for every project in the series, so please carefully check the schedule below before signing up! Signing up for the FIRST session will sign you up for the entire TeamWorks. If you know in advance you'd have to miss one of the projects, let us know and you might still be eligible to join the team. Questions can be directed to Melia Tichenor, melia@handsonportland.org or 503.200.3370.
Team Schedule:
Session 1: TeamWorks Kick-off at Oregon Public House
Wednesday, May 22, 6:00pm - 7:30pm, NE Portland
For our kick-off session, we’ll be meeting at Oregon Public House, which, after years of anticipation, just opened this month as the country’s first “nonprofit pub.” Oregon Public House opened its doors with a unique vision: leverage Portland’s thriving pub culture to support its extensive network of nonprofit organizations (more per capita than any other city in America). It aims to offer 100% of its net profits to a selection of partner nonprofits doing great work throughout the city. We’ll each grab our own dinner (and get to choose which organization we wish to support through our purchase) and then sit down to get to know one another, discuss the team ahead, and learn a bit more about our hosting pub’s innovative business model as an example of how to think outside the box when it comes to making an impact.
Session 2: Where is the Need? Info Night with 211.info
Wednesday, May 29, 5:15pm - 7:30pm, NE Portland
Our second session takes us out to the call center at 211info, a nonprofit that provides free information and resources about more than 7,000 health, community, and social services to those in need of assistance. They receive 250,000 requests per year and are equipped to answer in more than 150 languages. During our visit, we will get to listen to some of the calls that come in and learn what types of community needs make up the bulk of calls received. After our tour, we’ll head to dinner at a nearby restaurant to discuss some of the issues that stand out to each of us and take the first step in creating our “impact plans” for the role we want to play.
Session 3: Get Books to Kids & Learn about “Trilogy” Volunteers
Wednesday, June 5, 5:30 - 7:30 pm, NE Portland
Our third session brings us to the Children’s Book Bank, an innovative nonprofit that grew out of one woman’s Teach for America experience, during which she learned about the “book gap” that exists in our society. For children in poverty, one of the biggest obstacles to literacy development (which begins at birth) is the scarcity of books in the home; and while the ratio of books to children in middle-income neighborhoods is approximately 13 books to 1 child, the ratio in low-income neighborhoods is a mere 1 book to 300 children. The Children’s Book Bank exists to help narrow the book gap by providing the community with a place for families to donate the books their children have outgrown, moving thousands and thousands of children’s books into the homes of kids in need. As we lend lend a hand sprucing up community-donated books, we’ll hear from Dani Swope, the founder of Children’s Book Bank, about what it means to thrive and survive as a small independent nonprofit in the city and the integral role that “trilogy” volunteers -- who make an impact through multi-tiered involvement -- help play in helping support their mission.
Session 4: Get Out and Garden & Learn about Leadership and Giving
Saturday, June 8, 9:30 am - 1:30 pm, SE Portland
Get ready to put on some gloves and get dirty at one of the 47 gardens run by Portland Community Gardens. Our group will dive into an outdoor work party, providing a little loving care to keep the garden looking good by weeding, mulching, removing invasive species, cleaning up paths, and more, depending on the seasonal needs. During the work party, we’ll hear from our volunteer leader, who has been involved with the community garden for years and was inspired by his initial involvement to begin supporting the organization by becoming a regular volunteer and eventually stepping up into a leadership role to help get others involved in the Portland Community Garden’s monthly work parties. After the volunteer shift, we’ll grab lunch nearby and discuss the roles leadership and giving can play in deepening your commitment to a cause. We’ll also check in on our “impact plans,” in preparation for the next week’s final presentations. For this project, please dress for the weather (and to get a bit dirty), bring garden/work gloves if you have them, and bring a water bottle and a snack.
Session 5: Stock the Pantry at OFB & Learn about Advocacy
Tuesday, June 11, 6:00 pm - 8:30pm, NE Portland
Oregon Food Bank is well-known for the work it does getting emergency food boxes out to individuals and families that struggle with food insecurity across the state. But OFB also has an advocacy wing, which works to eliminate hunger and its root causes through long-term, public policy solutions at the local, state and federal levels. During our shift, we will explore both avenues for impact-making. We’ll join other volunteers in helping unpack and sort donated food destined for low-income families, and along the way, have the opportunity to lend our voice and support to food security issues at the policy-level through OFB’s postcards-to-legislators campaign.
Session 6: TeamWorks Wrap-Up & Impact Plan Presentations
Sunday, June 16, 5:00 pm - 7:00pm, Location TBD
For our final session, we will come together for a potluck dinner to reflect on the TeamWorks experience and share our “impact plans” with one another. Each of us will present our chosen issue area and three actionable strategies we plan to use to deepen our impact in the community in the months to come. We will share where we plan to give our time to our chosen causes, how we will use our voices to raise awareness and deepen our reach, and where we will make a personally significant contribution of $10 or more (in lieu of the typical $10 TeamWorks commitment fee) to support programs or initiatives working to make positive change in our chosen areas of influence.
Click "Sign Up" below to reserve your spot on the team! Need help signing up? Call 503-200-3355.
Age Minimum (with Adult): 18+, Minimum Age:18+
Log in or Register
In order to register for this opportunity you must log in to an existing account or register to create a new account.
Sign up with a team
This link allows you to participate in this opportunity with a team. A team can be a family team, corporate team, or any kind of organized group. When you click on the link you will have the option to:
- Choose an existing team you're already a member or captain of, or
- Create a new team to sign up.
Signup Questions
Please respond to the following questions in order to signup for this opportunity:
FOLLOW US!