HandsOn honors 10 organizations making most of volunteers

The nonprofit agency HandsOn Suburban Chicago hosted the "Be the Change: Celebrate Service" breakfast last month to honor 10 service enterprises.

Organizations that excel at leveraging the skills and talents of volunteers in their core operations are called service enterprise. These organizations have proved to be more adaptable, sustainable and capable of scaling their impact in comparison to peer organizations.

The 10 service enterprise sites in Illinois are also among the first in the country. They are Barrington Area Council on Aging Inc.; The Bridge Youth & Family Services; The Center of Concern; Community Education Township High School District 214; Escorted Transportation Services Northwest; HandsOn Suburban Chicago; Little City Foundation; Northwest Compass Inc.; Palatine Opportunity Center and WINGS, Women In Need Growing Stronger.

These are the 10 pilot sites that have completed service enterprise training, HandsOn Executive Director Chris Smith told the attendees at the Metropolis Ballroom in Arlington Heights. The audience included Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes, Mount Prospect Mayor Arlene Juracek and Katie Stearns, vice president of HandsOn Network, the parent organization of HOSC.

HandsOn Suburban Chicago, the only licensed service enterprise training hub in Illinois, is helping expand the integration of volunteer resources for organizations with all levels of volunteer service. It is expected this will help the region better address the increases in poverty, hunger, homelessness, literacy issues, lack of job readiness and low student achievement.

As an affiliate of the HandsOn Network and Points of Light, HOSC is part of the largest organization in the world dedicated to volunteer service, and provides nonprofits access to the Service Enterprise Initiative.

This holistic change management approach helps organizations gain a greater return on volunteer investment and better achieve their sole mission.

Sponsors for the event included Nokia, RSVP and Baxter. Several businesses provided in-kind donations to support the event, including the Metropolis Ballroom, the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, The Irving Press Inc. and Timeline Media LLC.

The event featured MC Dennis DeBondt and a troupe of comedy improvisers courtesy of the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre.