It's official. The new regional volunteer center that will be coordinated through the Jones Center in Springdale is named Good Works Volunteer Center for Northwest Arkansas. The Jones Center is partnering with Walmart to establish the center, and Tyson Foods is on board as the first community partner.
Coletta Patterson, regional volunteer center planning director, says the planning is continuing, listening sessions with nonprofits continuing. And this week, three listening sessions open to the public are scheduled.
"They will be interactive and engaging sessions where people will join us and be able to answer questions about what they would like to see in the center, where they feel the needs are for volunteering, what might be some barriers for them volunteering as well. And so we want to consider all of that as we continue to shape up the framework and how we'll operate the center.
"So they will be very uplifting and engaging. We think lots of positive energy as people are able to network with their fellow neighbors and able to just engage in conversations together."
Two of the sessions are Wednesday from 11 to 1 at the Jones Center in Springdale, then Wednesday from 4 until 6 at the Fayetteville Public Library. Thursday evening from 5 to 7, a third public session will be hosted at the Momentary in Bentonville. Each of the three sessions will be the same, just different opportunities for people with different schedules to attend.
Patterson says the emphasis at these sessions is on interaction.
"There will be stations around the room where people will kind of group up and go around to these stations, and there will be different questions and conversations at those stations. And so it's very participatory. It's not a sit down, come listen to a lecture. It's going to be get up out of your seat and get to answer some questions and meet some people," she says.
These are still the earlier stages of the development of the regional volunteer center, and she understands that people might be unsure just how they can fit into it. That, she says, is exactly why there are these public gatherings this week. For those unsure of just how or where to volunteer, but she suggests thinking about the skills you have that you can share.
"Opportunities they would like to see that maybe they don't know if they exist or where to find those opportunities. So I think any and all of that will be addressed at the session. There will be just kind of probably some open-ended time for questions and answers as well.
"So yeah, come bring your ideas, bring your friends, bring people just to share, because we don't want to put something here that doesn't meet the needs of Northwest Arkansas. So while we have gone and we've seen other centers across the country and we've learned what works well for them, we also want to know what works well for here in this space. And so that's why we're really leaning into the community to provide that information for us."
Patterson reemphasizes public input is especially important as Good Works gets established.
"And we often use this phrase, if we are planning in public. And so they get to see all the things that we're learning and come along the journey with us. And so I think that's been the beauty of it, bringing people together to shape Good Works for what Northwest Arkansas needs, and to really strengthen this volunteerism arm that already exists in our community.
"There's lots of good work happening already in the nonprofit and community sector, and we just want to uplift that, bring greater awareness to it, and also bring more people that can help them in their missions."
Coletta Patterson is regional volunteer center planning director for Good Works Volunteer Center for Northwest Arkansas. The public input sessions to help inform the center's work are Wednesday from 11 to 1 at the Jones Center in Springdale and Wednesday from 4 until 6 at the Fayetteville Public Library. Then Thursday evening, from 5 to 7, that's the third public session, that's hosted at the Momentary in Bentonville. We spoke with Patterson at the Jones Center last week.
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