January 2024 Newsletter
2023 Annual Report
Look at what we accomplished! Full report Linked below
Marion Resourcers were hard at work throughout the year, performing outreach on:
Repair, reuse, swapping, sharing
Food waste prevention
Green cleaners and toxics reduction
Waste prevention, recycling and composting
In 2023, Marion Resourcers volunteered 712.25 hours, and made 2,026 new community contacts! Across 40 events and outreach opportunities, 29 partners ranging from city jurisdictions, community-based organizations, nonprofits and businesses were engaged through partnership programming. The 712.25 hours contributed an equivalent value of $21,331 to the Marion County community (based on the Independent Sector report on valuation of volunteer time - $29.95/hour).
Check out the full report here!
Report can also be found on the Our Impact/Impact and Reporting tabs of the website.
VOLUNTEER SURVEY
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Hours Opportunity
As I transition out of the role and the new coordinator transitions in, I would love to hear from you all! What has been a barrier to your participation in the program? What have you enjoyed? With busy lives and various interest areas in waste reduction and recycling, I also realize folks might want to see more support within this network from their peers also interested in similar topics. Any data to serve the volunteer network better will be invaluable to the program going forward.
For this reason, it would be so helpful if you could fill out the anonymous Outreach and Engagement Survey linked here to share your thoughts.
You can earn up to 1 hour of payback for filling it out (6 questions). Some topics include:
What outreach events/outreach did you like/participate in during 2023?
What events/outreach opportunities would you like to see in 2024?
What topics are you most passionate about? (i.e food waste, reducing plastics, green cleaners, advocacy?)
What are the barriers to pursuing projects or participating in volunteer opportunities?
How can the waste reduction program reduce barriers to your participation?
Newly Certified Marion Resourcer!
Congratulate and Get to know Mary Christian
Mary Christian (pictured left in flannel).
Mary Christian (Class 1): Mary Christian is now a certified Marion Resourcer! Mary has volunteered at various events in including Riverfront Family Fest (pictured above), Toy Swap, Halloween Costume Swap, and virtual volunteer gatherings to sharpen her waste reduction knowledge. Mary was part of the first official Marion Resourcer training at the Salem YMCA in Spring 2023, and has been an eager learner and community waste reduction advocate ever since. We are extremely grateful for all of her work!
Dakota’s Transition and Last Housekeeping Program Items
Marion Resourcers,
Once again, thank you for the incredible volunteer work and dedication to sustainability education in Marion County. I will miss this network of exceptional folks. As a reminder, my final day of work with the County will be January 16th. In terms of things to expect as backfilling of my position takes place:
Volunteer opportunities: will be on hold until my successor is selected. You can however report in the hours reporting website area anything you do on your own. Earth Day 2024 is still happening and we will need hands! Salem Cloth Project, Salem Free Fridge, NW Hub, and other reuse organizations could be a great place to support. They need volunteers and working with them counts as payback hours!
Reaching Waste Reduction program staff for inquiries: my colleague Rachel VanWoert can be reached at RVanWoert@co.marion.or.us for waste reduction inquiries or you can call our Marion County Public Works number to be directed to her at 503-588-5036. That said, Rachel is not taking over my responsibilities and will have limited capacity to support volunteer-centric requests as her main priorities revolve around the EarthWISE sustainable business network. She can make note of comments to pass onto the incoming coordinator.
Respectfully yours,
Dakota Tangredi
