Leadership Venango, the Chamber; 9- month leadership program, includes a mandatory group project. One of the groups from the Class of 2022 recognized a need to involve children and youth in volunteering, and partnered with local businesses to help students in middle school acquire various skills to prepare them for volunteer opportunities.

The group was made up of members Akshay Kumbhare, Amariliz Sanchez, Ashleigh Bennett, Chris Loll, and Megan Weber (pictured below). Their volunteer preparation workshops and partnering businesses are as follows: Pet Care presented by Precious Paws, Household Cleaning and Food Prep presented by Peddlers & Paddlers Inn, Landscaping and Tool Safety presented by King’s Landscaping, Communication and Soft Skills presented by Watkins HR Strategy, and Basic First Aid presented by Ben Hart of UPMC Northwest.

The workshops were a success and students were on a waitlist to attend some of them. The group didn’t want their workshops to be a “one and done” type of thing, but they also didn’t have the capacity to continue them on their own. Jenny Taylor and Will Price, from the United Way of Venango County, reached out to adopt the model and fully fund it. Their board approved it and now the United Way is offering the model under the name Connect 2 Contribute.

The United Way held their first round of the workshops earlier this year and look forward to continuing them into the future. These workshops will span a variety of topics, such as pet care, basic first aid, household maintenance & food preparation, tool safety, and landscaping. They will also give students training in soft skills that will be helpful in both volunteer and professional environments. These workshops will be offered at no cost to the students.

For more information, visit unitedwayvc.org.

This article was published in the Venango Chamber’s June 2023 VenangoWorks! Newsletter.