VolunteerNow in Flint, Michigan

606 cases of water. 116 water filters. 347 home visits. Hundreds of volunteers. This is what one week looks like in the response to Flint, Michigan’s ongoing water crisis.

Lisa Tatum, VolunteerNow’s disaster manager and nationally recognized AmeriCorps alum, traveled to Flint, Mich. to manage the volunteer coordination efforts in place as part of disaster response. She was called upon by the national Points of Light to connect volunteers from all over the country with incoming donations of water and other items.

While on-site for a week, Tatum worked with Points of Light and United Way of Genesee County to manage the flow of volunteers and help them be the most effective in delivering aid to area residents. Companies and organizations have been donating items by the thousands, while volunteers have arrived to help distribute them.

Tatum also brought with her VolunteerNow’s proprietary volunteer-matching platform, VOLY.org. This 24/7 portal provides everyday volunteers with access to more than 800 volunteer opportunities posted by 1,000 nonprofits, who have the ability to manage volunteers through shift work and tracking hours in the software. The city has continued use of VOLY.org to match individual and groups of volunteers with distribution efforts. This saves Flint, Mich. money, time and additional resources needed to help its citizens recover.

“We successfully trained their staff to manage a Volunteer Reception Center and develop a plan with their local emergency management office,” Tatum said. “Our greatest contribution was developing a volunteer management technology platform with more than 200 volunteer opportunities from more than a dozen local churches. The system will eliminate the administrative burden on [United Way of Genesee County] staff and create a coordinated response.”

Tatum has been recognized for her outstanding service in disaster responses, which include Hurricane Sandy and North Texas tornadoes, among others. The week after her service in Flint, Tatum traveled to Washington, D.C. to be recognized by the American Red Cross. VolunteerNow is proud to have been part of the response in Flint.