Project: Volunteer Kitsap!
Kathleen Cahall, Abby Crisp, Dave Finley, Art Malgapo, Charisse Ritzman,
Sara Simrell
The Volunteer, Kitsap! team designed and implemented a public outreach campaign to launch Kitsap County's new web-based Volunteer Center - www.volunteerkitsap.org This Volunteer Center supports all organizations in Kitsap County that utilize volunteers by improving the infrastructure that connects volunteers to organizations. A Volunteer Center is a convener for the community, a catalyst for social action, and a key resource for volunteer involvement. As more people volunteer, they make positive connections within our community. This new site joins over a hundred Volunteer Centers across the nation now using 1-800-Volunteer.org; a bilingual web-based portal where volunteers can find volunteer opportunities in their communities to use their skills to assist or to address year-round community-based needs. The Washington Alliance for Volunteer Engagement (WAVE) is funding the Center. The Volunteer, Kitsap! team participated in the vital drive to organize and recruit volunteers to meet the local community needs throughout Kitsap County. The team used a variety of methods to reach potential volunteers such as booths at the Kitsap Mall and other community events, newspaper articles, cable access television, presentations, pens and bookmarks, and even a highway reader board. Over 400,000 outreach contacts were made by the team through these methods. The goal was to recruit as many volunteers as possible through the website where a database is used to store records of volunteers’ account information. Recruitment of 1,000 volunteers averaging 5 hours per month would translate into a potential community benefit of over $1 million per year. The Volunteer Center database will be an ongoing endeavor overseen by the United Way and Kitsap County. This database will provide a long term tool that will benefit the Kitsap community for years to come by providing an ongoing pool of volunteers.

Project: Operation: Disaster Prep
Les Lee Arriza, Claire Bradley, Carolyn Day, Greg Hunt, John Rykala, Pam Townsend, Rachel Wellman
The Operation: Disaster Prep team partnered with local emergency management, housing authorities, the American Red Cross, the Chuck Wagon Senior Nutrition Program and Kitsap Community Resources and held a Disaster Preparedness Fair on April 14. The event took place at the West Park Family Housing Community Center with predetermined families. The fair included opportunities for individuals to receive emergency training while assembling 72-hour disaster preparedness kits. In addition to receiving the kits, all the adults were given important survival information by Phyllis Mann, Executive Director of Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management. At the same time, children ages 7-14 were taught basic first aid by the American Red Cross. Everyone learned important ways to protect themselves and their families and had the opportunity to pick up vouchers to attend additional Red Cross classes.

Project: Hunger Fighters Special Unit
Stephanie Charbonneau, Patricia Hennessy, Faithe Lester, Wanda Moore, Luke Morscheck, Roger Zabinski
The Hunger fighters Special Unit partnered with members of the Kitsap County Food Bank Coalition, United Way of Kitsap County, Parametrix and Rice Fergus Miller to lead a campaign designed to increase awareness about hunger in Kitsap County. The Hunger Fighters produced a brochure and video for the Food Bank Coalition and hosted an outreach event at the Kitsap Mall in early May. At this event, they built an eight-foot tall food pyramid out of 971 cans, promoted the annual Letter Carriers Food Drive and provided families with information about food assistance programs available in our community. In addition, the Hunger fighters teamed up with junior high school students in South Kitsap to collect more than 8,000 individual diapers and worked with the Soroptomists to collect feminine hygiene products. These products, along with the 1,300 pounds of food used to create the food pyramid, were donated to the eight food banks in Kitsap County. Because of the generosity of so many individuals and businesses the Hunger Fighters special Unit also mad a $500.00 donation to the Kitsap County Food Bank Coalition.

Project: Connecting Kitsap
Kevin Buyer, Kathy Collings, Brennan Dobbins, Jill Johnston, Bonnie Michal, Chuck Sanders
Connecting Kitsap successfully placed twenty four donated and refurbished computers into the community. The computers have been placed at three different Kitsap County Consolidated Housing facilities, Martha and Mary Nursing Home, and Park Vista Assisted Living facility. In addition, computers were also placed with two individual seniors in the Central Kitsap area, the Friends of Avery, the Boys and Girls Club of Bainbridge Island, a Silverdale Kiwanis sponsored individual and Kitsap Community Resources Learning Center. Kitsap Computing Seniors will take over the project beginning July 2007. They will be using the resources that the team has gathered, including a storage unit which was donated for one year to hold computers until they are repaired and placed. Connecting Kitsap, "Linking the wisdom of the past to the technology of the future through community involvement", would like to express sincere thanks and appreciation to our community sponsors and participants for the success of this project.

Project: Teen$ense
Jill Brenner, Peter Denis, Shannon Doran, John Forsman, Katy Kingsbury, May Westerback, Robin Williams
Teen$ense is a project that focused on making financial literacy fun for adolescents. Sponsored by CFA NW Mortgage Professionals and the Clearwater Casino, Teen$ense was able to put together a sustainable financial literacy program with the Suquamish Tribe. The project included a Train the Trainer session on Saturday, April 21. The Teen$ense team left the training session with several learning points. For example, one curriculum item the teens particularly connected with was a discussion called “Circle of Life.” They related to the historical self-reliance of traditional native communities; the understanding and respect for natural resources; and the ability to manage those resources by budgeting and saving them to address the needs of their people throughout the seasons. The teachers at the Tribal School plan to turn the Teen$ense project into a 40 hour math class this summer with the goal of increasing to a full semester in the fall.