4612 Paddock Road
Cincinnati, OH 45229
PWC Summer Student Service Program
For more than 46 years, People Working Cooperatively (PWC) has been strengthening communities by providing critical home repairs, energy conservation, and accessibility modification services in an effort to help residents remain independent, safe and healthy in their homes. PWC is supported by a robust group of more than 110 licensed, professionally trained staff members and administrative personnel. In addition, PWC boasts a dedicated corps of 3,500+ volunteers, one of the largest in the region. PWC volunteers and skilled staff were in nearly 3,500 homes in 2020 performing 6,000 services to assist more than 6,000 individuals in southwest Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana. A grant from the Dater Foundation supported volunteer services, specifically the PWC Summer Student Service program. This program’s goal is to engage youth in meaningful volunteer experiences that benefit both them and their community.
In 2020, the pandemic made volunteer activities problematic for both volunteers and clients during the spring and summer. Though most volunteer activities were cancelled out of concern for the safety of all, the need for simple home repairs and yard maintenance work that youth volunteers typically took on, persisted. PWC designed a new protocol for delivering volunteer services and kicked it off in fall of 2020 during a new 45 Days of Service volunteer event, which took place throughout the month of November. Despite the challenges faced organizing and delivering volunteer services during the pandemic, PWC was not only able to meet its goal of engaging youth in volunteerism, but actually doubled the number of youth from a goal of 200 to 433. Dater Foundation funding was instrumental in supporting youth involvement in the 45 Days of Service event, covering tool rentals, repair materials, work assessments, service coordination and more.
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