Year of Volunteers 2001 Starting To Take Shape.

One volunteer appearing in a local newspaper in New York City, the Staten Island Advance, recently cast a different image from the stereotype of a basic volunteer.

The feature story showed a blind parish chaplain with diabetes working with the prison community after getting special training from New York City's detention program.

The press effort to show the new image started in January as part of a cooperation with the Staten Island Borough team of New York City's International Year of Volunteers (IYV) 2001. The local paper plans to run a feature article on volunteers, called "Volunteer of the Week" 52 times this year.

The campaign to recognize volunteers' achievement is part of the United Nations' IYV 2001. New York City launched its drive in January to kick off a comprehensive, 12-month program to promote and foster volunteerism.

"We're hoping to let people know that volunteerism is not just for women or the stereotypical senior," said Ann Marie Riccardella, the Staten Island borough coordinator.

Riccardella runs the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) and serves as area director for the Staten Island Office part of the Community Service Society of New York. Despite her organization's emphasis on retired volunteers, she sees the campaign as vital to get younger people acknowledged.

"We sent out letters to the community asking people to nominate outstanding efforts of local volunteers," she said. Responses from the public bring in a number of selections for the local paper to highlight. The effort tries to reach, "the person next door," Riccardella explained. One article featured a middle-aged, female, breast cancer survivor who works at a hospital as part of the messenger service and monitors 4,000 calls.

Riccardella's strategy gets feedback.

"We received around 40 forms just from the paper," she said. "That figure is great. We haven't been able to get to the general population before, other than through our own agency"

Riccardella's goal is to inform people about the new image of volunteerism. The campaign strives to reach different groups such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts or school groups. "We're trying to hit every part of the borough, not just volunteer groups," she said.

The New York City Committee for the IYV 2001 consists of a coalition of more than 200 nonprofit, government and business organizations. The United Hospital Fund is a founding member and has hosted meetings for the two years prior to the launch.

Yet volunteerism has the stereotypical image of "the little old lady doing charity work for poor people out in the borough," said Rustie Brooke, founder of the IYV 2001 and part of the Mayor's Voluntary Action Committee. "Volunteerism is not that at all -- we have many more types of people."

While one goal looks to have people volunteer a little longer, the campaign really targets the general public and media to change the awareness for those in the trenches. Volunteerism goes past the professional volunteer to the board of director and student interns.

"Volunteerism is a profession and should be treated, as such," she said. "There are people who act as professional managers such as human resource people, and they need a healthy dose of esteem because they don't get paid much."

April's usual national volunteering week will be extended for the entire month and Brooke expects to work with WABC local television and radio with a series of PSAs during the month.

Events are planned in the five boroughs and Long Island that include local kickoff events, volunteer conferences, the creation of volunteer directories, recruitment fairs, award ceremonies, walks and picnics.

New York City must battle a lack of coordination between many nonprofits. "No one knows about the impact of volunteers because people think it's people doing extraneous work," Brooke said. "But the Gay Men's Health Crisis is volunteer driven and they don't do extraneous work -- volunteers are doing real work in real time."

IYV seeks to bring together the volunteering community, which is fragmented into 44,000 nonprofits in the city. "People don't know what the next one across the street is doing," Brooke said.

To correct this, Brooke's committee designed a Web site nyciyv.org to provide information, about how people can get involved in the IYV The event needs grassroots groups to feed into the site to show activities. A hyper-link from this site is available to Volunteer Match, an on-line volunteer referral service, which will enable New Yorkers to become new volunteers or investigate new opportunities.

Manhattan's local committee conducted research and discovered that the first documented description of volunteers were firefighters. A kickoff ceremony commemorated a plaque to the first volunteers, pictured around 1737 carrying leather buckets of water.

"The volunteer firemen served as the main force to put out fires for 127 years," said Frank Pomata, the Outreach Coordinator for WV. "Often we don't think of the local firefighters as being volunteers but in small communities around the suburbs they are a large force."

Across the East River in the Borough of Queens, an international breakfast reflected the diversity of the campaign. Approximately 35 agencies, such as hospitals, senior centers, volunteer programs, educational programs and housing organizations, sent officers to a cultural breakfast. People brought ethnic cuisine like homemade coconut bread and Irish bread soda bread along with various sausages and pastries.

"Queens is one of the most racially diverse areas of the country with 100 different languages," said Audrey Nurse, assistant director coordinator of youth in Queens. "This interaction is ongoing and started last year to plan what to do this year," she said.

Last year the group conducted a tree lighting ceremony during the holidays along with a food and toy drive. The committee gave toys to a local shelter for children and the food went to a pantry. The public relations effort was helped by pulling in local politicians who supported the campaign.

Queens's major focus aims at the June 3 annual event called the Queen's Day Fair held in the old World's Fair site of Flushing Meadow Park. The event is usually visited by thousands of residents. The fair consists of educational themes from nonprofits and public agencies as well as entertainers and food vendors.

The IYV committee plans to honor volunteers and expects ethnic groups to hold health screenings. Also a commemorative journal will list various local volunteers.

Meanwhile the Bronx [Borough] Coalition for IYV has made contact with local papers such as the Bronx Times, the Parkchester News and the Riverdale Press. The group has reached out to 40 organizations but doesn't know how many volunteers exist. Some of the organizations reached include hospitals with as many as 1,200 volunteers.

"We've just started opening doors," said Margaret Hamer, the chairperson for the Bronx coalition. "We're establishing a network of volunteers and trying to set up the figures of how many Volunteers work in the Bronx."

Media coverage has raised awareness for people who are unofficial volunteers like those working in church groups and some board directors, according to Hamer.

"People came forward saying they didn't realize they were volunteers," she said. "These people don't really see themselves as volunteers but they can certainly call themselves that with pride."

One giant goal of the city IYV attempt hopes to link up with the New York City NonProfits Project's 2000 survey. IYV wants to follow up with key questions about volunteerism. "It's hard to get real numbers in the city," Brooke said. "But we don't want to count on the national numbers."

The IYV campaign generally strives to change the minds of legislators and funders to appreciate that good volunteer programs require adequate support. "National groups representing volunteerism have been sitting around on the same issues for 40 years," Brooke said. "The IYV 2001 is a vehicle to update the image and get serious recognition.

Tom Pope is a New York City-based journalist who writes about management issues.