Category Archives: Resources

10.21.09
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Online Chat: Nonprofit Careers Using Peace Corps Experience

Posted as part of Nonprofit Career Month, featuring the diversity of professional opportunities in the nonprofit sector.

Peace Corps experience isn’t just for people who want to become international development leaders or Swahili professors or even English teachers. Peace Corps assignments vary immensely, the technical training and hands on experiences that Volunteers get are intense — and valuable for people thinking about nonprofit careers.

Whether you’re just starting out in a career, or have years of experience you can apply for Peace Corps assignments with direct application for later nonprofit work, such as:

This coming Monday join nonprofit leaders who are applying their Peace Corps experience directly to their current jobs in an online chat about Peace Corps:

Jessica Ross served as a community development volunteer in South Africa from 1998 to 2000 where she worked on several projects, including the creation of a youth HIV/AIDS awareness team that educated youth in rural schools. Currently, Ross is the Associate Director of Development for Treehouse, a non-profit organization that fills the gaps for kids in foster care by providing services that no other agency addresses, including money for extra-curricular activities and summer camp, professional educational support services, resources to fully participate in the everyday activities of growing up, clothing and supplies to help them fit in at school.

Maureen Oscadal served as a health volunteer in Zambia from 2006 to 2009 where she worked on a variety of health outreach initiatives as part of the Community Action for Health Project. She also became heavily involved and even led malaria education and prevention programs. Currently, Oscadal is the Program Coordinator for the Hepatitis Education Project (HEP), a Seattle-based non-profit which has grown from a support group for people living with Hepatitis C to a statewide program that raises awareness, teaches prevention, promotes political action, and provides information and support to those living with the virus.

The hour-long chat takes place Monday, October 26th, at 9 pm ET/6 pm PT. Learn more here.  Registration is required!

10.20.09
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Free Webcast Today: Nonprofit Career Tips with Meg Busse and Steve Joiner

Posted as part of Nonprofit Career Month, featuring the diversity of career opportunities in the nonprofit sector.

Today, Tuesday, October 20, as Idealist hosts a Nonprofit Career Fair together with Seattle University, we will also run a live webcast during an accompanying information session, “Connecting Intention to Action. Connecting Action to Career” (1:30-2:30 pm PST).

Meg Busse and Steve Joiner, Directors of the Career Transitions Program here at Idealist, will lead this workshop.

They’ll take a holistic view of the career search by helping participants to:

  • See themselves and their career paths in a more complex and complete way
  • Understand several self-assessment tools that will help them articulate their experiences, skills, values, and priorities in a compelling way
  • Explore the “nuts and bolts” of the nonprofit sector in order to gain a larger view of how they might fit in
  • Explore ways to create intentional opportunities with organizations by exploring the synergy between their self and sector understanding

This event will also be offered as a free webcast to the first 150 attendees who register.

If you are interested in joining us via the web, here is the log-in information:

To access the presentation, click here.
To call in, dial: 866-740-1260
Enter the code: 2270113

To learn more: http://www.nonprofitcareermonth.org/simulcasts

10.19.09
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Volunteering and Service in Prime Time

Service becomes the theme of mainstream t.v. shows this week.

I’m so excited to watch t.v. this week because I want to see how television tackles volunteerism and service — if you haven’t heard, all week, prime time shows are taking true stories of volunteerism and nonprofit work and weaving into their plots.

More than 90 shows are participating (did you know there were 90 primetime shows in a week? I didn’t) and many stars are offering public service announcement style endorsements of community service.

Some examples of what I mean, according to the HollywoodReporter.com:

  • “Parks and Recreation” — the newish comedy starring Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler, as a local government leader — is featuring a playground build with an organization I’m a big fan of, KaBoom. Poehler’s character has been working to convert an abandoned and dangerous pit into a park and this week it’s finally going to happen with the help of KaBoom. Watch the episode here.
  • “The Biggest Loser” weight-loss contestants will volunteer at a Los Angeles food bank— here is the PSA airing as part of the show:
  • “Brothers” stars will volunteer as coaches.
  • “CSI: NY”‘s Dr. Sheldon Hawkes volunteers at a hospital.
  • Actors Simon Baker, Emily Deschanel, Eva Longoria Parker, Rainn Wilson, Kate Walsh along with some all-star casts will appear in PSAs.
  • General Hospital offers this direct reference to the iParticipate campaign with a few simple lines of diaologue:

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is trying to track the t.v. shows that feature volunteerism on a live blog. Let them know what you’ve seen on their website.

The initiative has been coordinated by the Entertainment Industry Foundation in partnership with Service Nation the campaign to expand service opportunities in the United States. The multi-year initiative is called iParticipate and you can learn more about it on the iParticipate website, and/or follow iParticipate on Twitter.

10.06.09
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Career Transitions: Exploring Your Options for Life After AmeriCorps

Contributed originally to the Nonprofit Career Month blog by Magdalena Montagne the Effective Practices Project Coordinator at the Resource Center.

People come to national and community service for a variety of reasons. As a young person, my desire to help children along with a love of reading led me to the America Reads program. I was considering becoming a teacher and this was one way I could check it out while also getting first-hand experience in several different classrooms (both elementary and middle school) and having the chance to observe some amazing teachers in action.

Of course, the real power was with the relationships I made with those students who were struggling to read. Every day I felt I was helping someone. This kept me engaged in a way that hadn’t happened in previous jobs, and before I knew it the service year was coming to a close. However, I hadn’t made a plan for what to do next. It wasn’t until several years — and several jobs — later, Continue reading →

10.05.09
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Civic Ventures Offers an Online Course to Help You Transition to Your Encore Career

A new online course helps mid-career professionals transition to a new career.

Marc Freedman, an career author, and the head of Civic Ventures, will be leading a four-art online course during Wednesday afternoons in October helping people to transition to an “encore” career — or a second career a person takes on typically in the “second half of life.” The course is part of the NY Times Knowledge Network.

  • Session #1, Oct. 7th, 6-7 pm ET, will provide an overview of the idea and phenomenon of encore careers.
  • Session #2, Oct. 14th, 6-7 pm ET, brings non-profit employers together to discuss what they’re looking for when Continue reading →