The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships reports that as the amount of face-to-face social time has decreased in North America, the number of people reporting they are lonely most or all of the time has increased. The British Columbia-based Social Connection Guidelines recommends at least between nine and 12 hours of social time per week is needed to avoid loneliness. The Atlantic reports American adults are spending 30% less time doing face-to-face socializing than 20 years ago, and for American teens, the decline approaches 50%.
Connecting with others can be a challenge. Coletta Patterson, Northwest Arkansas Regional Volunteer Planning Center director, is thinking about all of this.
"The Surgeon General put out a report about the academic epidemic with loneliness. And so that's one of the things that we've learned a little bit more about — the connection between loneliness and volunteerism. And so we know that volunteering helps with loneliness. So if your people are eating out more alone, they just don't have those friendships. And the connections to the volunteer center will be a place where people can come, get connected, engage. And it's an opportunity sometimes where you sign up and you don't know anybody else who's there. But when you get there, that may be your next best friend or somebody that you can go and have coffee with. And it comes at a time when you wouldn't have normally run into them on your own. And so just to be able to sign up to volunteer places and meet other people is just great."
This week, Coletta Patterson discussed volunteerism and the recently announced Northwest Arkansas Regional Volunteer Center. The initiative, fueled by a $1.2 million grant from the Walmart Foundation, will be guided into existence through the Jones Center in Springdale, but it's designed to connect people with volunteer opportunities with any nonprofit in the region. The rest of this year is dedicated to research, town halls and exploration about volunteering possibilities throughout the region.
Patterson says part of the grand plan is to help area nonprofits with sustainability.
"Help them be able to do more work beyond their paid staff or interns that they have. So if we can send more volunteers their way just to increase the amount of work that they're able to do, that's definitely something that the volunteer center will do."
Kellams: How will that take place? I know we're not there yet, but how will that take place?
Patterson: In a lot of different ways. So right now, we're collecting information from as many of the nonprofit community as we can — faith-based as well — just so we can find out what the need is and the gap in services for nonprofits. How they're using volunteers currently is very important to us. If they need more volunteers, we want to know that as well. So once we have that information, then we can begin to plug in people who want to volunteer. We also want to look at interest level for volunteers — like what piques their interest, what is their availability to volunteer — and then match them with those nonprofits who can meet their interest and their availability.
Kellams: Does it also go the other way? Are there people in Northwest Arkansas that are seeking a place where they can volunteer?
Patterson: Yes, there are lots of people who are seeking places to volunteer, and I think one of those groups are the people that are moving in. So as we know, there's tons of growth here in Northwest Arkansas every day. New families are moving in, and it's really a point of connection. The volunteer center will be a point of connection for them to find out who's doing what, where can I get involved quickly — and kind of a one-stop shop to find out how do I get plugged in as far as volunteering? So we're really excited to be able to help all those moving in. But people who have been here forever, who just don't have the time to dig into all the millions of nonprofits who are doing great work here — we can do that for them and help match them where they want to be.
Kellams: You mentioned you're kind of taking the temperature of nonprofits right now — how they use volunteers, what they're doing. How are you doing that? Is that a survey?
Patterson: Mostly listening sessions. So there have been some individual sessions. We also are working with a consulting firm who is doing some listening sessions for us. Some people are just reaching out on their own to myself, and so I'm interviewing with those. And then anybody who wants to still play a part who we haven't gotten around to — because the list continues to grow every day and every week — we're trying to get around to everyone. We want to make sure all the voices are represented at the table. So we want to make sure we're hearing all the right information so that we can best help nonprofits.
Kellams: Let's say you and I are sitting at this table three years from now. What do you think we can talk about — what has happened in the previous 36 months?
Patterson: I think we will see an increase in volunteerism — just sheer numbers, more people volunteering in the community. I think we'll also see an increase in nonprofit capacity in terms of them being able to do more work with volunteer labor and also skilled labor. That's something that we want to connect people to. There may be retired teachers who can go and provide workshops at some of the nonprofits, or accountants, or people who can do strategic planning. So I think we want to weave in all of those people as well when we think about volunteers. But hopefully we will see an increase in the number of volunteers, as well as giving going up for nonprofits, because we know that there's a link — those who volunteer a lot of times eventually become donors. And so we want to see that as well.
Kellams: What nonprofits, what agencies that are based in houses of faith, could qualify — or would you want to hear from?
Patterson: I think we want to hear from any and everybody. We don't want anyone to feel as though they were left out of this planning process. We want to hear all the voices and see all the perspectives and do as much as we can for everyone. We are trying to get as many win-win situations as we can and keep everyone happy, but we do know that we'll be working within our scope, so we'll do as much as we can. And we do hope to be that one-stop volunteering spot that people think of.
Kellams: So walk me through the timeline. You're having these initial conversations now — what comes next?
Patterson: Having initial conversations. Then we will also visit some peer sites who are doing this work. There are none in Arkansas as we know, but there are several across the country, so we will be going to visit those. We are asking questions of them — of how they started, how they've grown, how they've scaled their work, what their models are for getting volunteers and making it sustainable. So that will be the next piece. We're also forming advisory councils now. A community advisory council with nonprofits and faith-based institutions, and then a second corporate task force, which will also serve as an advisory council. We really want to hear from those corporate partners in terms of how can a volunteer center help lift the load for them to get their employees and associates more involved in volunteering. So after we do those advisory councils and we're hearing from the peer sites, then we're going to do some town halls towards the end of the year, where by that time we hope to have a good operating model and be able to say, this is exactly what's coming next year, and people can kind of give some feedback on that — but really more of a pep rally type thing, and say, wow, this is really here. We're excited about it. Take it back to their communities and get everybody excited.
Kellams: Is there a built-in sort of advantage that this is being centered at Jones Center, a nonprofit that relies on volunteers? I mean, you kind of know the world.
Patterson: Yes. And Jones Center is elated to be able to do this work. It lines up greatly with one of our strategic pillars, which is nonprofit sustainability. And so it came at a really great time to be able to do this work alongside Walmart, because it just aligns with our mission and where we're trying to go.
Kellams: Let's say I'm a nonprofit and I go, you know where I could use some help? Web design. Do those count?
Patterson: Yes, all of those will count. That's why we're doing the listening sessions with nonprofits — so we can find out what are those areas that you see a gap in, whether it's accounting or marketing, graphic design, if it's just doing gardening. Whatever those areas are right now, we're not ruling out anything. We want to build up this inventory of opportunities so that we have a ton and a variety of opportunities for volunteers to pick from. So we're not counting anything out.
Kellams: This is a big job, with a lot to go with in a big area, an emerging area. Is it at all intimidating?
Patterson: More exciting than intimidating. There is a lot of work that's going into it, but we do have the Sprint Work consultants that are working with us, so they're doing a lot of the researching and helping with some logistical things. For me, there's a lot of project management in terms of keeping all the balls rolling and moving and making sure we stay on track. We do have a pretty aggressive timeline, and so we're just making sure that we're checking off all the boxes. So lots of work, but I'm looking at it as more exciting rather than intimidating.
Kellams: So as you're keeping the ball rolling, as you're working with this aggressive timeline, do you understand the desire for nonprofits to have volunteer help?
Patterson: I do. I've worked in the nonprofit community for over 20 years, and I've been an executive director for a nonprofit for several years. So I understand the plight of nonprofits trying to do more with less. And so there never seems to be enough resources to do all the work that you really want to do. So this comes right on time to be able to help nonprofits get that skilled labor, get people who have a couple extra hours a month to help with mentoring, or just to be an extra set of eyes and ears, or to do community gardening — just to make those nonprofit dollars go farther.
Kellams: Someone's listening to this and they think, my nonprofit, my agency — or me, I want to be involved. What do they do right now?
Patterson: They can reach out to me and we can set up a listening session. We can find out more about how they want to be involved and we can get them plugged in. The actual site won't be available until sometime next year, but there's lots of work going on with planning, so definitely there's room to get involved. There's also room to get involved at Jones Center and other nonprofits who are available, looking and willing to take in volunteers — so they don't have to necessarily wait for the volunteer center to start. There's plenty of opportunities across Northwest Arkansas today.
Kellams: All right, one last question. Someone's at a nonprofit. They go, yeah, I'd like volunteers, but I don't know if I even have the time to work with them to make it worth their while.
Patterson: Any amount of time is great. Coming from a nonprofit background, you'll take 30 minutes. You'll take two hours. Any amount of time is very much appreciated, and we're willing to train. We're willing to make sure they have the tools they need to be successful. We're willing to screen them and make sure it's the right opportunity for them. So I would say any amount of time that you can give is needed and appreciated and wanted.
Kellams: Thank you so much for your time.
Patterson: Thank you for having me.
Coletta Patterson is Northwest Arkansas Regional Volunteer Planning Center director. Our conversation took place Monday afternoon at the Jones Center in Springdale.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
