Community Service Workers

Community Service Workers
Approximately six years ago, we began researching the possibility of being involved with the Community Service Program as it then existed with the local court system in Colorado Springs.
This was for the purpose of taking on persons that had court-appointed community service hours to work off with non- profit organizations. We started this program on a small scale; it began to grow and after a short time, the operation on the court side changed drastically and a private organization - Front Range Community Service - took over the whole program. When they took over, we developed a contractual relationship with them, and have maintained that relationship.
It has been an excellent experience and one that has been of mutual benefit. We have agreed to take on many different types of offenders; however, we do not become involved with felons or sex-offenders.
In addition to receiving folks from this organization, we also have developed a relationship with Goodwill. 
This is an entirely different program, as people that go on food stamps in Colorado do so through Goodwill. Food stamps are not given away - they must be earned. The folks receiving these must put in a certain number of hours working at local non-profit companies per month - hours equal number of food stamps the folks receive. We are on Goodwill's approved list of 501©3s. Every month Goodwill sends us all the workers we can handle, and believe me, given the economic situation of the last year, there have been many. We also have recently been asked by Lutheran Family Services - which is a very large organization here in Colorado Springs that deals with people from around the world - if we would take on people from other countries for a short time and help train them until they find full time employment in the states. While they are with us, we teach them various work skills, introduce them to American customs and ways to live and adapt to the United States.
We have two additional programs - albeit smaller - that we work with from time to time. As of the end of October 2010, the number of volunteer hours that we have had with all of these programs combined this year amounted to 6241 hours. This totals 297 volunteers. Having these volunteers is a two way street. It provides labor that allows us to have work done that we could not afford to do. On the other hand, it taxes us to our limits to provide supervision, materials, and supplies to keep this number of people working and to service their needs. However, it has been a wonderful experience! As you know, we are an all-volunteer organization. As these people go through an interview process, we let them know we are all on the "same level; we are all volunteers", and we do not save our "dirty work" for our short-time volunteers. They are assigned the same jobs as our "regular" staff. Our job is to supply them with the number of hours they need to complete in a safe, clean, friendly, non-threatening work environment, and that they are subject to the same rules and privileges as our full time volunteers. One thing that we find is most remarkable is that we have - in the shop - one or two, or ten or twelve volunteers - both men and women, any color, race, or creed - all brought together for the first time. People being people, one could expect this could be a recipe for disaster. However, in the six years that we have been doing this, we have never had a problem. What we normally find in the first few minutes of working together, they find common ground, are talking and laughing, as though they'd been working together all along. We do everything we can to maintain this harmony. We have had some of these folks at the end of their community service time with us stay on and become full time volunteers. We have others that have made a point of coming back and letting us know how they are doing, or bringing their families into the museum and to just say hello. We have established some terrific relationships.
The whole program has become a very rewarding experience, and we have every intention of continuing it. We are not only working on streetcars, but are also working on people!
Howard Noble