PV VOLUNTEERS INC

As an organization, the PVs are trying to make an impact, both on the communities in which we are serving, and on the volunteers themselves. We provide a full experience for the volunteers with service, community and reflection. While the volunteers are engaged in serving, they learn about the issues and difficulties faced by those on the margins while providing much needed services. In the evening, we come together as a volunteer community to reflect on those experiences and see how we can make changes in our lives once we return home to effect change in our own communities.

As a program, the PVs provide many different experiences for the volunteers from rural to urban settings. Volunteers are able to be exposed to people and places that are different than those that they are used to being around. The program provides these experiences along with the vehicle (community living and reflection each night) to create change.

Between the two directors, there is over 40 years of experience in working with volunteers and creating an environment for a positive outcome. As long as there is funding and locations that are interested in having the volunteers come, the PVs can provide a life changing experience for volunteers.

With over 40 years in existence, the PV Volunteers have touched thousands of lives, both volunteers and those that they have served. Children have grown up in the program and have gone on to be amazing, giving adults, many citing their experiences with the PVs as a child as a driving force. We have a 80% return rate, meaning 85% of volunteers serve at least two different times with the PVs, many with 10, 15 or 20 years of PV volunteering experience under their belts.

What we haven't accomplished is being able to be financially stable since we became independent in 2009. It has been a struggle to keep enough funding to keep things going. Staffing has been cut and salaries reduced in order to keep the program going. The dedication of the volunteers have gone a long way in helping to keep everything going.