How will you help your community in the next 20 years?

Tom Silvestri, publisher of

The Times-Dispatch: This Public Square is a special one because it's about you. It's about you and the role of worrying about your community and working in your community.

Reggie Gordon, CEO of the Greater Richmond Chapter of the American Red Cross: The Red Cross, as I hope you all know, is totally dependent on volunteers . . . .We could not provide services to people who need us when their house burns down or apartment burns down at 2 a.m., people who want to connect with various cultures, with the Red Cross being our common symbol that brings us all together. People who need transportation to medical appointments, people who need to take and learn first aid, CPR. All of that could not be accomplished with just the paid staff.

It's critical that we make sure we have a constant, sustainable connection to people who feel that that's my cause, that appeals to me, that's how I feel I can give back to my community. And I'm a little bit anxious about making sure that, 20 years from now, we have people who are just as excited to be volunteers as we do currently.

Vanessa Diamond, the director of Hands On Greater Richmond: Hands On Greater Richmond is a volunteer hub and access point for volunteers to help connect to nonprofit organizations that are looking for volunteers . . . .Our interest is really helping agencies figure out how to build the capacity to intake volunteers, and how to help volunteers and citizens find that right match so they stay and they enjoy their service.

Nikki Nicholau, director of the Virginia Office on Volunteerism and Community Service: The challenge for everyone right now is: How do we keep the citizens engaged? Particularly this wave that we talk about, the baby boomers . . . .

Richmond does a very good job of engaging folks. We are above the national average in terms of the percentage of citizens who volunteer and the numbers of hours per citizen. Where we tend to have a problem is with retention. Our retention rate is only about 54 percent, which means about half of volunteers stop volunteering.

John Martin, president of the Southeastern Institute of Research and co-founder of The Boomer Project: We work for a lot of companies and communities across the country, helping them understand boomers and helping them support boomers in their encore careers, trying to figure out where to go next. We are also here to share highlights of a study that was just finished. It was underwritten by The Community Foundation and the Older Dominion Partnership. Everybody knows The Community Foundation. The Older Dominion Partnership is a group that formed about two years ago to get Virginia ready for the age wave, when aging boomers will basically double the senior population in Virginia from about 900,000 to 1.8 million. That's going to happen over the next 20 years.

Figuring out civic engagement is a fundamental aspect of making boomers feel prepared to navigate growing older. We have behind me some slides that I'm going to refer to during the evening and bring to light two studies. One was just conducted among 814 area residents in the Richmond region. It was an online survey. We also did a nonprofit leadership survey among the executive directors and the volunteer coordinators of nonprofits across the Richmond region. This was a 15-minute study. Almost 200 executive leaders were in this study.

Silvestri: We heard mention of the current state that we're in, regarding civic involvement. How involved is the community in various issues?

Nicholau: In the greater Richmond area, the average citizen is volunteering about 39 hours a year in some sort of volunteer capacity. That compares to, on the national average, something like about 34.5. So we are volunteering at a higher rate than the national average. The numbers are good, particularly for boomers . . . .Their median hours are 70. So boomers are actually volunteering at about double the rate of average individuals who are volunteering. What troubles me a little bit as I look at those statistics, the younger they get, the numbers go down. So if we're talking about this wave that's coming through of folks that are 20 years younger than the boomers today, what is that going to mean? Are those numbers going to increase?

I will give you a true story, though. I had breakfast with a friend yesterday who is semi-retired and works at the food bank. And she said that it was interesting the number of people that are working at the food bank who are laid off of their jobs and have lost their jobs. And what they say to her is, "You know, I could stay home and feel sorry for myself or I could be here and help other people. And so while I'm looking for a job, I need to be doing something else, too." I thought that was a real testament for the spirit of volunteerism in this community.

Diamond: The big thing that we're looking at in the nonprofit community -- and we're looking at as kind of a volunteer hub -- is how do we help prepare nonprofits to engage different types of volunteers in different ways. Traditionally, older populations have volunteered in ongoing positions, where they might volunteer with one organization for a long period of time. But the research is showing us now that boomers are interested in flexibility. Millennials are interested in flexibility. It's a huge shift for most nonprofits and agencies to think differently of placing an individual in a role versus having conversations with people who are interested in volunteering and saying, "What skills do you bring? How can we help best maximize your time and energy so it feels meaningful?"

We co-sponsored a training today with the Greater Richmond Association of Volunteer Administrators. There were 70 administrators there. And this is literally what we focused on all day with talking to nonprofit volunteer coordinators about: How do you change your models? How do you be nimble and address the kind of different needs that people are looking for?

Gordon: When I think about our volunteers, we have about 1,000. Six hundred are adults and 400 are children or young adults. Most of the adults are over the age of 35. When I went out to look at the volunteers who are helping out at the fire this week, they're mostly in their 50s. They had the ability to leave their home at that hour of the night and go help.

So when we think about the demographic and moving forward, that's a special kind of pool of people who are ready, willing, and able to turn on a dime and put their life on hold to be a volunteer for organizations like ours. We see people come in the door now who have a weekend, or an evening. And that's how they want to govern their time. So we have to be flexible and adapt to the needs of the community based on the new requirements that we're seeing from potential and prospective volunteers.

Silvestri: What do we need to do to ramp up civic involvement? How does Richmond become a real leader in civic engagement?

Gordon: We need to relinquish some of the control that we now feel we need to have with our volunteers. There needs to be a central way to tap into a match, whether it's you have a passion for a particular issue or cause, or it's a time constraint. We can no longer expect people to shop around. One of our best volunteers said she called around to different places, and she's with us because we called her back. So that means there are people out there who are just waiting for the return phone call. And if you're a nonprofit and you're busy doing what you feel is necessary that day, you may skip that return phone call until the next day. But we're happy because she's priceless. But that means that someone else out there didn't have the opportunity to connect with her.

Martin: In the research, we said, "What are some reasons you don't volunteer?" And here's a long list that shows why people say they don't volunteer. The first one, lack of time, makes sense. We live in a pretty hectic life. But then if you look through the rest of the list, you start to see words like "awareness of opportunities," or "availability of opportunities," or, "lack of short-term opportunities." It's just amazing how many people said they just don't know where to turn.

Diamond: We run our programs in multiple ways so that one of the first things we do is we have a calendar. It literally allows people to sign up for projects. "I want to work at the food bank next Tuesday. I'm going to sign up." You get the e-mail confirmation. They show up. There's someone there to greet them. But we also allow agencies to post ongoing opportunities. So we're really trying to build that full spectrum. Our No. 1 complaint from volunteers is that our projects are full.

Gordon: Our reputations are so critical. If someone has had a bad volunteer experience, that's the worst thing. Or they feel as though we've been non-responsive. I think we have made a mistake of saying, "Yes, we want you, we need you, walk in the door," and then we're not ready to receive that volunteer. So they're inside of our shop looking at what we do, and then they leave, saying, "They didn't use me, they didn't call me back. That nonprofit -- all nonprofits -- they don't know what they're doing." We have to be really cautious about how we engage people. And if we can't use them, that's another reason to have a great network. We can redirect the energy toward an organization that has a need.

Silvestri: Okay, panel, good overview, good starting points . . . .We'll go to our first speaker.

Jim Doherty, Richmond: We had decades where the idea of volunteering just wasn't in America. When you think about the "me" decade, you don't think about the community. And that went on for 20 years . . . .My cause tonight is The Richmond First Club. I've been a member for some 40 years. We're about to have our 90th birthday party . . . .We have plenty of room for those who want to participate in making this a better community in which to live.

Martin: What we're seeing in this research and others is that this kind of new spirit of frugality and new ethos of getting away from materialism is starting to catch hold. We're seeing more and more people talk about helping out and volunteering. The research we have shows that when we ask people if they see themselves spending time in the future volunteering, the gen-Xers and boomers are saying, "Yeah, a lot more time." We're seeing ourselves become much more volunteer-oriented. I think it's a big pendulum that swings back and forth. I think we're on a swing toward a return to more volunteerism.

Gordon: We have volunteers, as well, who appreciate the networking opportunity by getting involved with nonprofits. Hopefully, we'll have brighter days in the future. And so if you have the time now, and you have a skill set, and you want to offer that to a no-profit, it could be that that could mature into -- or morph into -- employment, either with that nonprofit or some other nonprofit in days to come.

Jonathan Heaslet, Richmond: I'm senior pastor at St John's United Church of Christ. Circle . . . .I'd like to make a comment as to why people can't volunteer. And I want to be specific. I'm talking about those under 16. Good habits begin young. We are a volunteer church for CARITAS. I was so pleased just a few days ago to see a 4-year-old old volunteering and doing good work. She was setting up placemats and napkins. And yet, for so many places, when we ask about volunteering, they said, "Well, you have to be 16 because of insurance regulations." And I'd like to see if there's been any conversation or any experience as to how we might help our young people get off to a young start and a good start that will continue for their entire lives and not just begin when they retire at 65.

Nicholau: That is a challenge in terms of having the appropriate volunteer opportunity for young folks. I know a neighbor of ours just started volunteering with the Richmond Peace Project. And they do take younger ages. I can tell you it's changed her life in terms of the work she's done. So I would amen your comment in saying that we do need to figure out. Because if we look at the ages of people who are volunteers, the younger they are, the less they tend to volunteer.

Diamond: It's flat-out an issue for nonprofits continually. We just launched a youth initiative over the last six months. And it's taken us a lot longer than we thought it would to launch a youth program, primarily because a lot of agencies tell us if they're under 16, no way. What we're doing is really reaching out and working one-on-one with nonprofits . . . .Agencies are scared to reach out and work with youth. How do we break that cycle? How do we work with them to not only create youth programs, but to create family-friendly programs? I use myself as a great example. I have a young daughter. I work full-time. If I'm going to volunteer on the weekends, I want her to be a part of that. And I want that to be a part of her life.

Gordon: I started off as a Red Cross Youth, volunteering at Thomas Jefferson High School. And now my life has come full circle, back to the chapter that I used to attend as a young person . . . .I can't get away from them. It's in my blood, I guess. For the Red Cross, we try to encourage Red Cross clubs. And I would suggest that boomer parents and grandparents explore or try to find out if their child's or grandchild's school has clubs that support volunteerism. It's a great pipeline to sort of get you infected with the volunteer spirit.

Bob Argabright, Richmond: I've been a volunteer down in the Oak Grove-Bellemeade community for the last five years, on an extensive basis. And I just want to comment on the younger kids being involved. I can give you some illustrations. Down in the Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School, their partnerships with Collegiate, St. Christopher's, St. Catherine's, Steward School, and Trinity. There are over 250 children from Collegiate alone involved in that little school. They start in the kindergarten at Collegiate . . . .So age surely isn't a barrier for these children . . . .

The other thing comes in, too, is getting your story out there. Because there are a lot of resources within this community that are going untapped. For example, ASK [Pediatric Cancer Fund]. It's a wonderful organization that addresses children that are involved in cancer treatment. Well, do you know that they've got a warehouse full of toys? Anything that's not individually stretch wrapped cannot be used with these children. Why? Because of the chance of infections. So they called me and said, "Mr. Argabright, I understand that you can probably use a lot of stuff in our warehouse." So when I went over there, I couldn't believe what I saw. Coloring books, crayons, and all these things that they couldn't use, I just loaded a van and everything I could get my hands on, because at Oak Grove-Bellemeade, we could use them, and just use them every day. So we need to do a better job, like Hands On Richmond, of getting to know each other and playing off of each other's resources. Because we've got warehouses full of stuff that can be used over here. And we're just not communicating . . . .

I just want to share with you a story. Last Thursday night I was working with a young lady. And I asked that young lady to paint me her future story. So she drew a beautiful story. It was a two-story house. She was going to have a son. She was going to have a daughter. And everything was beautiful. Smiley son's face and everything -- utopia. I said, "That's beautiful. Where is the father?" She said, "Oh, I forgot to put him in. Let me have that back." And then she drew this picture. The father and the husband are in jail. Now he's got a smiley face on, too. Now what's wrong with that picture? So I'm saying to the volunteer community, "Help me change the future picture of this child."

Jim Ukrop, Richmond: If this town had more Bob Argabrights, we'd be a wonderful, wonderful place. What he does is exceptional. I guess what I have tonight is somewhat of a challenge. I couldn't help notice this past Sunday that the paper had volunteer rankings. And guess what? Minneapolis was No. 1. And to me, we always think of ourselves as Richmonders, as wonderful, wonderful people. But we were 27th. And behind Detroit, Baltimore, Indianapolis, many, many other cities. So I'd like to see if somehow or another we could challenge ourselves to be perhaps the top five or some day the No. 1 city when it comes to volunteerism.

Martin: It's interesting listening to Mr. Ukrop talk about this topic, knowing so many of his employees during the day are sitting on boards and volunteering. And it's the role of the employer that we also have to applaud, and insist that more and more employers allow their workers to volunteer during the day, and encourage that. And in our research, we empirically prove this. Thirty percent of the Richmonders we interviewed in the study said their employer provides paid time off for volunteering, or allows them to volunteer during their regular work hours . . . .You can just see that real lift that happens when the employer's behind it.

Miriam Davidow, Richmond: I work with Richmond Public Schools, with partnerships and volunteerism. And I want to begin by thanking Bob Argabright for being here. Bob is an example of one of our over 4,000 volunteers who come to our schools to work with some of our 25,000 students in our 50 settings. We talked a little bit about capacity building. One of our biggest challenges is taking advantage -- and I use that word in the best sense of the meaning -- of people like Bob Argabright, who come to an Oak Grove-Bellemeade School, and say, "How can I help? What more can I do?" And to make sure that we have the capacity and the facility to be able to meet his needs at the same time that he's meeting the community's needs.

Of those 4,000 volunteers, of the 600 partnerships that come into our school, we see folks coming from the faith community. We see people coming from universities, coming from the civic community, and coming from our corporate community. Some of our corporate community has gone above and beyond what any of our expectations could have ever been, in terms of supporting us while they're doing their own job. So my question is, how do we expand that capacity? And how do we share that message of volunteerism with the corporate community?

Diamond: I think the very fact that your position exists is it a testament to the schools recognizing what an integral role volunteers play. And I know that you've also set a system up where there are individuals at each school, who should be kind of the partnership coordinator. And you've got data bases that are starting to be implemented. Those are the key things that schools are doing that some nonprofits don't. [Some] haven't even gotten near tracking volunteers. But I think it goes back to exactly what you were saying with Bob -- being able to make sure that you can train and retain volunteers like Bob. Because he's not just one, he's an army underneath. He's an exponential volunteer. He's a volunteer that enables ten, 20, 30, 40 other people to volunteer. So, I think it's really looking at your systems, and making sure that you are kind of creating you're giving leadership opportunities, and not just delegating, but really giving them the authority to manage and be creative.

Jennifer Smith-Slaubaugh, Richmond: I'm with Virginia Mentoring Partnership. I would like to speak about having volunteer organizations be creative and innovative in terms of working with their volunteers that are coming in. Our organization provides training and technical assistance to new and existing mentoring and tutoring programs. What we have started doing in the past two years is actually creating a menu of options for volunteers. I want to urge not only baby boomers, but our community at large, to consider volunteering in a mentoring and tutoring capacity. Because there is a wide range, of volunteer opportunities. Our past and current superintendents have both stated that there are 15,000 or more children just in the Richmond city schools alone that could benefit from being matched with a caring adult that comes into the schools in a mentoring and tutoring capacity . . . .

Volunteers should feel they have the ability to tell the agency, "Hey. I've got an idea." And so, we as nonprofit organizations, need to be more open to encourage that type of participation.

Nicholau: We've been talking a lot of times about the boomers, and we've been talking about young people . . . .But with the boomers, there's going to be an increased need for services to this group of people. The reality is, sure, there are going to be more of us out there volunteering. But there are going to be a whole bunch more of us needing services from those volunteers. I think one of the other things that we need to start thinking about as a community is, how do we keep boomers in their home and create new kinds of volunteers who serve their community?

Silvestri: [John Martin] is leading the Older Dominion Partnership and has had this vision that Virginia needs to get in gear and plan for this wave.

Martin: We are really headed toward a serious meltdown, with the aging boomers headed into the 65-plus category. We really are going to see the doubling of our senior population. And the real problem is the generation behind the Boomers. The boomers' kids -- the gen-Xers -- are a much smaller population. If you think about boomers today, 50 percent of us are taking care of our aging relatives or parents. If you do the math and look out over the next 20 years, there are just not enough gen-Xers to take care of the aging boomers.

So we're going to have to get all kinds of systems put in place, and move from institutional care to home-based care -- because boomers want to age in place. But we're going to have to do so with a whole support system from volunteers.

Charlie Finley, Richmond: I'd like to make two points. My take on the term "volunteerism" is maybe a little bit different than what a lot of you all have talked about. For example, I would guess that most of us here are active in our church or synagogue. And there's something that you do. Maybe choir practice once a week, or some committee that you're on. Probably a lot of you, like me, serve on some alumni organization, raising money for your school. We don't keep track of this in terms of hours per week, or whatever. We have a great thing that comes to Richmond called the Folk Festival. My wife and I volunteered for that the last four years, all three days. I mean, that's got to count as volunteerism. But it's not exactly what you all were thinking . . . .

I think I've been part of maybe five or six other civic associations that I've helped to found. Probably many of you are active in some professional society, on a committee, or helping to do a project. And it maybe only comes up once a year, or maybe only one time. So, that's a sense of volunteerism and I just am amazed when the figure was 39.9 hours. I guess that was per year. But I wonder if that figure really captures all of what is out there.

Rick Tatnall, Richmond I think that we're not recognizing the problems that we're facing . . . .The numbers that I looked at in the [Commentary] section, with 27.1 percent of the population being involved in the community means that 72.9 percent of the population is not involved in the community . . . .If we don't get the rest of the community to get invested and involved, we're in serious, serious trouble.

Diamond: What are the other 78 percent doing? But when we also look at international numbers, Americans double what international volunteers are doing, because in most cultures, volunteering outside of your family unit or your kind of immediate circle, doesn't exist.

Imad Damaj, Richmond: I'm with a faith-based organization, the Virginia Muslim Coalition. I wanted to bring attention to a different aspect of the volunteerism: our community's diverse culture, ethnicities, religions. I think there's a lot of great opportunities out there. What it needs from all of us is to look at things a little differently. I remember a couple of years ago -- several years ago -- we were volunteering with the James River clean-up. And one of the sites where we were, there was a huge apartment complex full of Latinos living there. And I approached one of the organizers. I said, "Have you all thought about talking to them, to get volunteers?" And he responded, saying, "Well, we don't have anyone who speaks Spanish." You know, that's a very weak excuse . . . .There are a lot of boomers in this first immigrant generation.

Nicholau: When we talk about getting those numbers up from 27 percent, I think we need to think about how we do reach out to populations whose cultures are different than ours, whose languages may be different. You know, the thing that surprises me -- we're in there cleaning up a neighborhood, but we haven't even asked the people who are in the neighborhood to help . . . .How do we involve those individuals in the work that we're trying to do in their community, in their area? We've got to be more open to have people who work with us, who speak different languages, who have different cultures, and understanding some of the limitations that might create in terms of the volunteer opportunities we have.

Mark Brickey, Richmond: I'm a team leader -- as a volunteer. I'm a team leader with Hands On. And I just want to tell you what it has meant to me. Someone mentioned those who've been laid off, and they've got more time to give service hours. That's me. I'm one of those. I've been laid off for a while now. And what I'm going to say about what Hands On has done -- being a team leader, it's immeasurable. My bank account may be doing this [motions downward]. But my community service hours are doing that [motions upward] a lot faster than the bank account's going down. It's really put things in perspective.

For instance, one of the projects I worked on was the Richmond Homeless Connect at the convention center back in November. I was helping some of these folks, and then I went home that night. I went to bed -- well, I turned the heat up just a little more. I went to bed, and then I looked at my surroundings. And I thought, "I'm living like a king. I might be unemployed, but some of these folks I helped today, I am living like a king. And I feel so good about it, compared to that."

Another thing I want to say is the fact -- being a team leader, is -- the leadership development, the leadership opportunities and the leadership development that it has given me -- and I'm addicted to it now . . . .I'm paying for two degrees from two different schools right now. But the leadership development that I'm getting from Hands On, at the risk of sounding cheesy, is priceless.

Silvestri: We're getting towards the conclusion. Any closing thoughts before we get out of here?

Gordon: I'm encouraged by the people in this room. This is the choir. But obviously, we're trying to connect to the broader region -- other folks, who may not be aware of the work that's been done with Hands On Richmond, and other wonderful, effective organizations. I think we just continue to spread the word. Find your cause. Find your passion. Spread the word. And maybe exponentially, we'll have these higher numbers of people who are engaged, and who are volunteering, and who are preparing this community to have a sustainable volunteer core, 20 years from now.

Nicholau: The challenge is for each one of us to go out and get involved by asking one more person to get involved. And I think that's probably the key. So, look around you. All of you come into contact with people who maybe are not as involved as you are. Just get one more person. If we all got one more, and they got one more, just think of where we would go.