What We Do
HandsOn Suburban Chicago (HOSC) was founded in 1969 with a mission to “improve lives by developing, advancing, and promoting community volunteer initiatives”. HOSC primarily recruits and places volunteers with nonprofits in need of help and trains nonprofit staff in volunteer and nonprofit management. This provides over 150 local nonprofits with critical capacity building support for strengthening and sustaining their programs. HOSC's service area includes 53 towns and villages in the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago, reaching a population of over 1.6 million.
HOSC serves the community by:
- Recruiting volunteers for nonprofit staff through the 1-800-volunteer.org's online volunteer matching database, community classes, a periodic newspaper column in the Daily Herald, and HOSC's website, which has an average of over 400 volunteer opportunities posted each week
- Connecting volunteers with 152 nonprofits and schools in need of help through the targeted recruitment of youth, adults, seniors, and corporate employees. HOSC is the largest volunteer center in Illinois and over 10,000 volunteer referrals are made on average each year
- Training nonprofit staff through the provision of over 20 professional development half-day workshops, three Volunteer Management Training Series (VMTS) certificate courses, a nonprofit technical assistance program, and the distribution of an e-newsletter which discusses local trends and strategies in volunteer management
- Directing its own service initiatives to address unmet needs in the Chicago suburbs. This includes a Caring Hearts Community Drive, which collects necessities for area shelters and families in crisis; the Community Paint-A-Thon, which benefits low-income seniors and disabled persons, and the Homeland Security Program, to train volunteers to act in case of an emergency
-
Recognizing volunteers and volunteer managers through an annual recognition event to celebrate their accomplishments
