Have you ever wondered how to give back to the Oxford community? Do you regularly volunteer but lose track of your hours? Miami’s brand new volunteering website, ComMUnity Connect, makes volunteering in the community easier than ever before! We spoke with Leigh Ackerman, the Coordinator of Volunteerism and Outreach for the Office of Community Engagement and Service (OCES) to learn more!
Why Get Involved in the Community?
- Whether you know it, you are already a part of the local community. Miami students make up a significant and valuable part of the Oxford population. With so many campus activities going on though, it’s easy to get stuck in a bubble and forget about the community challenges surrounding us. Volunteering with local nonprofit agencies allows you to break out of the bubble and evaluate your individual role in the community.
- Great for your resume. You may remember that volunteering is great for college applications and it is also great for your resume. But why? Sustained community service demonstrates that you are an engaged citizen. Volunteering provides you transferable skills and experiences, such as teamwork, problem solving, and adaptability. ComMUnity Connect even has a ‘Volunteer Resume’ feature which generates a beautiful Miami branded report of all your volunteer work during your time at Miami.
- Meet new friends and community members. Service is a great way to get to know like-minded students you may have not otherwise met or strengthen relationships between members of a student organization who only see each other every so often. It also provides a way for you to meet and learn from members of the community outside of Miami.
- Discover new interests and/or career paths. When you get engaged with your community, some new idea or passion often sparks. Volunteering may inspire a drive for you to intern with a nonprofit agency or with OCES. You may learn about a new major or graduate program your interested in that aligns with your volunteer work. You never know where it might lead!
How to Get Involved in the Community
Whether you are interested in volunteering in the community as an individual or a student organization, there are some key things to consider:
- Focus on community needs. It’s important when setting up a volunteer opportunity as an individual and a student organization that you take time to learn about the specific needs of the nonprofit agency or community. Sometimes on campus, we get wrapped up in a volunteer event being a certain day, time, focus, etc. without thinking about how this may not align with community needs and places a burden on a nonprofit.A phrase we use a lot in OCES is “passing the mic to the community”. This is how we encourage students and student orgs to approach their volunteer work: figuring out what the community needs and how we as volunteers can fit in (not the other way around).
- Think outside the box! A great way to serve your local community is by using your personal strengths, talents, and skills. For example, if you have an interest in social media and marketing, ask if an nonprofit agency needs help expanding their online presence.
- Get in the know for finding opportunities:
- Set up your profile on ComMUnity Connect.
- Search the Hub for service-related organizations
- Follow Student Life on Instagram for upcoming service events.
Background on ComMUnity Connect
We felt ComMUnity Connect was necessary because there was no centralized online location for information about volunteer opportunities or community needs and there certainly wasn’t a digital sing up process. We had (and still have) a newsletter that promotes community engagement events and opportunities, but there is no way to include all volunteer opportunities in it.
With ComMUnity Connect we now have one location where this information is stored on an ongoing basis. People can search based on the causes and interests that matter to them and then either sign up or connect directly with agencies to volunteer. It makes the process much more efficient for everyone involved–community partners, students, faculty and staff.
It was also confusing and sometimes difficult for nonprofits to know who to contact when seeking various kinds of University engagement. This provides them with an easy way to promote their needs to the entire campus community, again on an ongoing basis. Community engagement focused student organizations and campus-based initiatives can also create agency pages and post opportunities when available.
Agencies from Oxford and across Butler County are listing opportunities on the site. All students, faculty, and staff are able to sign in with their Miami credentials at any time. We encourage you to create a profile and choose causes and interests that matter to you. The site will then provide you with personalized suggestions based on your interests going forward.
OCES hopes that ComMUnity Connect will increase the level of Miami’s community engagement in Southwest Ohio. Our goal is for the site to become the go-to place for volunteer opportunities and the identification of community needs. We hope that students will find it easier to sign up for volunteer opportunities and that, as a result, they’ll be more engaged in a sustained way with long-term community partnerships.
We see the tool growing with more agencies and more volunteer opportunities. We are constantly encouraging agencies to enter their needs, so please spread the word! If you are part of a student organization with a community engagement focus or volunteer in the community with an agency that isn’t currently listed, please encourage them to create a profile and enter their needs! We want to provide as many opportunities as possible for people to volunteer and get engaged in the community.
