"Hope is Faith Holding Out its Hand in the Dark." ~George Iles

She came!  The high school student came to the training this afternoon!

I wondered on the way home why I was so excited about this.  Only part of it could be explained by that she found out about Pomona Hope because of my post on idealist.org.  Also only part was explained by the fact that she's from an area that we haven't broken into yet, and she might be our way into that.

I finally came to the realization that I'm excited about all the new volunteers because Pomona Hope isn't the kind of place that you volunteer for a few times and then never come back to just because you don't feel like it or you're not required by class to come anymore.  I've been a part of those programs too, and you don't want to get too attached to any of the kids or the program itself, because you'll probably never get to see them again.

I'm excited both for the volunteers and about the volunteers because they're like new additions to the family.  Pomona Hope is very good about leadership development, among the kids, among the parents, and yes, among the volunteers.  That's one thing that it definitely has over other after school programs.

How does it do this?  It expects more from you.

The volunteers are expected to be there consistently.  At least once a week.  We tell them that it's better for the kids to have the consistency (which is totally true!), but I've only recently realized that it's a way to keep them coming back and stepping up.  I've seen so many college students step through these doors and go on to become volunteer coordinators and interns and I've seen several graduate and go on into a life of ministry.  I've seen some of our kids grow up in the program and come back to be volunteers and encourage the younger kids to follow their lead.  One of these kids I've recently seen become a Pomona Princess (I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this!).

Before I started volunteering here, I never would have thought of myself as a leader.  And, quite frankly, it took a couple years for me to even admit it was possible.  But I've since found that in order to get leaders, you have to model a good leader and then give someone the chance to be one by giving them some kind of responsibility and having faith in them.

To some of you, this might not be a huge breakthrough.  For others, this approach never would have occurred to them.  For the community served by Pomona Hope, the latter was certainly more likely.

For myself personally, it kind of came intuitively (once I was in a position of leadership), but only just now am I able to verbalize it. 

But back to the matter at hand: Volunteers at Pomona Hope are another part of the family.  On a daily basis, that family consists of the kids of the after school program, their parents, the staff, and the volunteers.  And having new volunteers come in is like having a new sibling come into the world-- only, you're guaranteed to have something of a personality trait in common with them.