GOVERNOR

GOVERNOR'S COORDINATING OFFICES

GOVERNOR'S OFFICE OF COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

VOLUNTEER MARYLAND

[photo, 100 Community Place, Crownsville, Maryland] Sharon Lewis, Executive Director

100 Community Place, Crownsville, MD 21032
(410) 697-9282; fax: (410) 333-7010
e-mail: sharon.lewis@maryland.gov
web: www.volunteermaryland.org

100 Community Place, Crownsville, Maryland, July 2016. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

Budget

Historical Evolution
In 1992, Volunteer Maryland was created by the Governor's Advisory Board on Service and Citizenship as one of seven demonstration projects nationwide funded by the federal Commission on National and Community Service. Initially a program within the Office on Volunteerism, Volunteer Maryland functioned as a separate entity under the Office of the Lieutenant Governor from 1997 to 2003. In 2004, Volunteer Maryland transferred to the Governor's Office of Community Initiatives.

By partnering with local nonprofit agencies, Volunteer Maryland develops volunteer programs that meet a community's critical needs in education, human services, public safety, or the environment. Since 1995, Volunteer Maryland has been an AmeriCorps program which, in partnership with local agencies, recruits and trains 32 full-time Volunteer Maryland coordinators to serve in their communities as volunteer managers for one year. During the year, Volunteer Maryland provides extensive training and technical assistance to the coordinators and their partner agencies. Following the year of service and program development, Volunteer Maryland conducts an evaluation to measure whether the volunteer programs are able to continue, given their organizational capacity as well as number of active volunteers, and how the year of service has affected each coordinator in terms of their ongoing involvement in community service and public affairs.

In 2007, Volunteer Maryland received a national AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) award that funds up to 41 aditional full-time AmeriCorps volunteers in nonprofit organizations statewide each year.

Besides the one-year AmeriCorps placements and nonprofit partnerships, Volunteer Maryland also conducts on-site training and provides technical assistance for State agencies, schools and universities and nonprofit organizations. Education and outreach on volunteerism and national service throughout Maryland and the national AmeriCorps network are another responsibility of Volunteer Maryland.

Formerly located at 301 West Preston Street, Baltimore, this office moved to Crownsville in May 2016.

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