• Connecting people with opportunities to serve
• Engaging in activities that build the capacity for effective local volunteering
• Promoting and fostering volunteerism
• Participating in strategic initiatives that mobilize
  volunteers of all ages, ethnicities and genders to meet local needs

If you represent a group of volunteers, please contact United Way's Volunteer Connection directly by calling (937) 225-3039 or emailing us.

If you represent a nonprofit organization and would like to post your volunteer opportunities, please contact United Way's Volunteer Connection to register. Visit the Agency Tool Kit to learn more about the services provided to nonprofit organizations.

November Community Volunteer of the Month

April Cooper lives united by volunteering through Agape for Youth. United Way's Volunteer Connection is pleased to name April as Community Volunteer of the Month for November.

A recent graduate of Cedarville University , April began volunteering with Agape for Youth more than four years ago. She and another student, Stephanie Hilerio, served as team mentors to two different teenage girls involved in foster care. Both girls also served as co-leaders for Cedarville University ’s Fostering Friendships Ministry, an organization for other university students sharing time through Agape for Youth. She and Stephanie ran meetings for the group and organized events, including several days of volunteer service to help improve the homes of foster parents and families. April continues to mentor a 15 year old girl in Dayton who was recently adopted. The pair meets weekly to window shop, scrapbook, create a patchwork blanket, read and discuss books, make gifts for family members during the holidays and more.

Following graduation, April accepted the position of educational technology analyst with Cedarville University . She is originally from Hurricane, West Virginia . Her hobbies include photography, crafts, sewing and reading. April lives in Cedarville and attends church at Midtown Christian Community Church in Springfield .

"I've learned that I can't save the world, but there are some incredible people I've had the privilege to get to know as a result of volunteering," she says. "I live united by mentoring a youth in foster care, hanging out with amazing kids and other followers of Christ in an urban church and by serving at a food pantry."

"April says that a big part of why she decided to remain in this area following graduation was so that she could continue being actively involved with her mentee," says Carol Strychalski, youth specialist supervisor. "April has invested so much time and energy not only to mentor the youth she has been matched with, but also to help other mentors working with youth placed in foster care through Agape for Youth."