Volunteer UGA Sustainable Service Grant

Dear Volunteer UGA Community,

Volunteer UGA strives to make a lasting impact on not only The University of Georgia, but also Athens-Clarke County, the United States, and the world as a whole. The community achieves this by targeting certain niche issues such as the education gap, poverty, and environmental awareness.

The Volunteer UGA Board of Directors issues you a challenge: push your organization to engage in sustainable service.

The Volunteer UGA Sustainable Service Grant seeks to provide funding for organizations that fulfill Athens-Clarke County community needs by incorporating sustainable and meaningful hands-on service projects. Although traditional, or episodic, service is initially beneficial for an individual’s engagement in service, it does not provide a lasting impact on the communities they seek to serve. In order to achieve positive change in our community, it is critical that organizations make a commitment to a specific need. Sustainable service creates ongoing and impactful service opportunities that continually address that need over a longer period of time. The question is not will we serve, but how we serve.

This challenge was initially presented to Volunteer UGA by Mr. Darren Ash. Mr. Ash is an alumnus of the university, who after a successful career in the business world, decided to devote his life to service. In addition to serving on countless community boards that focus on homelessness awareness, Mr. Ash also functions as the Founder and Director of the Workforce Initiative for Supportive Housing (W.I.S.H.) program. Seeing the impact that service has had on his community and himself, Mr. Ash seeks to extend that to his alma mater. Mr. Ash and his wife, Kathryn, have generously donated money to provide Volunteer UGA the opportunity to engage in sustainable service.

We encourage you to reach out to your fellow organizations, to take risks, and to be creative. Here is your opportunity to make a lasting impact on the community of which we are all a part.

In service,
Volunteer UGA Board of Directors