The AmeriCorps VIP (Volunteer Infrastructure Project) Program seeks to increase the capacity of nonprofits in their ability to take on volunteers. San Diego has nine VIPs placed at seven sites that serve all of San Diego County. They are: Jewish Family Service of San Diego, Feeding America San Diego, United Way San Diego, Community Resource Center, North County Lifeline, The International Rescue Committee, and South Bay Community Services. Last year's state-wide VIP group recruited 52,117 volunteers who served 515,289 hours. That translates to a $12,459,699 dollar value of hours served by VIP-generated volunteers! The federal government initially invested $1.9 million into the program. So that dollar value also indicates a 600% return on investment.

But moving away from numbers, the VIP fellows of San Diego have worked tirelessly to create sustainable volunteer programs -- sometimes where there was no program to begin with! The varied organizations that host a VIP fellow serve our community with education, health, and human services. We participate in national days of Service including MLK Day and Cesar Chavez Day. Thanks to AmeriCorps, there are nine more nonprofit-savvy volunteer coordinators out there. And thanks to us, as of last quarter, we recruited 4,010 volunteers who donated a total of 42,248 service hours. Together, we served 31,893 community members.