HandsOn Twin Cities Is Organizing Volunteers during COVID-19, and You Can Be One of Them
Minnesotans are stepping up and making a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I want to make sure people know about all the organizations out there doing great work and helping during this crisis and beyond. I’m profiling a different nonprofit each day to share their information and their story.
With 100 years of experience in volunteer work, HandsOn Twin Cities is the only full-service volunteer center promoting and facilitating volunteerism. (It’s also the oldest surviving volunteer center in the country.) Run by my great friend Tracy Nielsen, the organization works with all types of volunteers, corporations, and nonprofits to maximize the value of people’s donated time.
For people who want to volunteer, HandsOn promotes local, organized, and relevant opportunities at nonprofits that are experienced working with volunteers. For nonprofits like my own Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, its team handles all the logistics, connecting groups and people in facilitating and coordinating the project so we don’t have to spend our time trying to catch up with everyone. We tell them what we need, and HandsOn makes it happen, oftentimes with a budget for resources (dependent on the company volunteering). For companies, the organization matches them up with projects of interest and expertly manage the projects and coordinate the team. It is easy for everyone involved because HandsOn takes on all the facilitation.
During this pandemic, Tracy and her team have acted quickly to provide connection to opportunities for people who want to help out but don’t know where to go—and, for nonprofits like ours, the ability to get the word out about needs to a broad audience with a special COVID-19 Volunteer Needs database right on the HandsOn website. The organization has been an invaluable partner for Hallie Q. Brown and other organizations over the years, and never more so than now, when we find ourselves in need of more volunteer support. Head over to their website and check them out, make a donation or sign up to volunteer!
HandsOn volunteers in action. HandsOn Twin Cities
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About the Author
Jonathan Palmer
Jonathan has been collecting and reading for over 45 years, has seen nearly every comic-book movie and most cartoons, and is a fount of obscure superhero knowledge that would make Dwayne McDuffie smile.
