Creating Infrastructure to Support Volunteer Involvement

Hands on Atlanta (HOA) is a non-profit organization that enables individuals and families, as well as corporate and community groups, to volunteer at more than 400 service organizations and schools in the Atlanta community. One of the largest impacts HOA has made on Atlanta has been in the arena of afterschool programming. Starting 14 years ago, HOA set out to create a system of school reform through volunteer civic engagement by providing occasions for direct citizen involvement with local schools. Initially, the hope was to assist local schools with tutoring and the implementation of afterschool programs. Today this assistance is provided to students in 32 schools throughout Metropolitan Atlanta. HOA manages the largest group of AmeriCorps volunteers in the Southeast with 100 members who serve as teaching assistants, tutors, mentors and volunteer coordinators at 24 elementary schools, six middle schools and two high schools in the Atlanta community. It is with this tremendous amount of support that HOA is able to provide two major afterschool programs that serve approximately 1,200 youth in the Atlanta metro area