Volunteer orientation for the United Way allocations process begins soon and volunteers are still needed.

Through the Allocations Process, United Way Partner Agencies are evaluated and allocation funding recommendations are made by groups of volunteers.

United Way of Greater St. Joseph President Kylie Strough said volunteers can expect to spend 10 to 15 hours between March 1st through the middle of May on a team reviewing three United Way partner agencies.

“It is a big responsibility and I hope people also view it as a real privilege because you get to be inside the agencies, learning really intimately about the work that they do,” Strough said. “So often we have a peripheral view of, ‘Oh this agency helps with homelessness or this agency helps with meals…’ but when you get to spend an hour and a half or two hours in a small group setting learning about all the programs that the agencies do and how they take the resources they’re granted and use them to best improve lives in the community, it’s a really neat experience.”

Strough said volunteers can set up times that work with their schedules and their teams will make visits to the agencies.

“(They will) hear from agency staff and board about the work they do, how they utilize United Way dollars in their organization and what their need for dollars is going forward,” Strough said. “Then the teams come back together and deliberate over all of that information and make recommendations to United Way’s Board of Directors about how many dollars they think each agency should receive going forward.”

Strough said orientation starts in February. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Jodi Bloemker at United Way at 364-2381 or [email protected].