National Volunteer Week 2019

To the amazing volunteers at Family House!

I want to take this moment to say thank you for all that you do for our families. With this week being National Volunteer Week, I want to reflect on how meaningful your service is, day in and day out. There are never enough hours in the day, but you, our volunteers, are able to donate your time and efforts to support families in crisis. Whether it's helping serve breakfast each morning; bringing your therapy dog for support; keeping the house disinfected; providing a beautiful family dinner; and everything in between, we absolutely could not provide the level of support that we do without our incredible volunteers.

Last year, we had over 4,200 volunteers support Family House (that is a staff-to-volunteer ratio of 1:140) and the impact is measured not just in numbers, but through the magic and love that is felt every day when you walk through the doors. We know there so many amazing nonprofits out there and you choose to help us. We are incredibly grateful for the love and support you bring to Family House. Thank you on behalf of Family House.

With Love and Appreciation,
Karen Banks

Become a Family House Volunteer Leader

Do you have what it takes to be a Volunteer Leader? 

Family House Volunteer Leaders have the unique opportunity to manage volunteer groups that visit Family House to host meals and other activities which are important for the families staying with us. The leadership role will include training new volunteers, welcoming and orienting group volunteers, completing house tasks, managing volunteer projects, and spending time with the families we serve. 

Interactions with families are essential to our organization and we need your help to lead events that foster impactful moments. Becoming a Volunteer Leader is a fantastic way to meet families, create friendships, learn leadership skills, build your resume, and give back to the local nonprofit community. Volunteer Leaders will have the opportunity to manage volunteer groups and activities during the mornings between 7:30am - 10:30am for breakfast; or evenings between 4:00pm - 7:00pm for dinner. 

We are asking Leaders to commit to 1 shift per week for 6 months (or longer). Ideal candidates are independent, self-starters, flexible, and determined to improve the lives of Family House families.

Volunteers are critical for the success of Family House and your leadership could be crucial to the support we offer our families. Consider becoming a Volunteer Leader and make a lasting impact on our children and families. 

To volunteer at Family House, applicants are required to complete a volunteer application, background check, photo release, and submit immunizations. We work with immunocompromised children and our requirements are for the health and safety of our families.

If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Volunteer Coordinator, Tarence Dixon at tdixon@familyhouseinc.org 

Rockstar Volunteer: Ashley Frolich

Ashley Frolich is an excellent volunteer who continually shines at every instance while at Family House. As a student at the University of San Francisco, Ashley majors in psychology and wants to eventually become a child and family counselor, and she is off to an incredible start.

Both inside and outside of Family House, Ashley has displayed extraordinary leadership. She is dependable, friendly, outgoing, and motived, with a strong desire to help families. These attributes truly shined through her work at the Family House Fall Fest Gala. She proved to be indispensable as a volunteer leader, directing and managing other volunteers and making it an unforgettable night.

Ashley has been a remarkable asset to the Family House volunteer team. She understands the essences of the house and how the families and team function. When families or staff need additional support, Ashley is always able to bring her extraordinary skills to the table. She can work independently, yet at the same time, she can skillfully manage individual volunteers, volunteer groups, and volunteer activities. We are so fortunate to benefit from her enthusiasm, kindness, and abilities. 

Thank you so much, Ashley, for your determination, your creativity, and the care you give to the families and staff. Family House sincerely appreciates you. We look forward to seeing you succeed in your future endeavors, and you continue to make a valuable impact on all of us at Family House. 

National Volunteer Week 2018

National Volunteer Week is April 15-21st!  This year, we want to take a moment to truly thank all of you for your support.
 
We rely on the volunteers who donate thousands of hours each year to keep our doors open.

Over the past year, because of you, we have hosted more meals, celebrated more birthdays, spent time with more therapy dogs and disinfected our communal spaces more than ever before to support our 4,000 families. We absolutely could not provide all of our support services without each and every one of you.

We are coming up on two years of supporting families in our Mission Bay home and 3,277 of you were instrumental to that in 2017. 
 
Volunteer Week is about celebrating you and all that you do! Without our community of dedicated individuals, we simply would not be able to serve our families as we do.
 
Thank you so much to everyone. Your volunteering makes a difference! Your support of Family House is the reason that we can positively impact the lives our families. We truly appreciate all of your efforts.
 



Sincerely,

Karen Banks, Director of Volunteer Programs
Tarence Dixon, Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteer Spotlight: Taylor Epstein

One of the ways Family House is able to secure funding is through our annual Cabernet for Connoisseurs and Gala events each year. A critical component to these events are our volunteers. We heavily depend on our Captain volunteers to help our staff run an efficient event with over 100 volunteers supporting. Once such incredible Volunteer Captain is Taylor Epstein. Taylor has been volunteering with Family House since 2013 and the majority of the time is spent at our events.

Taylor is a Pro at managing volunteers to work the silent auction and to bring in much needed funds to Family House. Coming from the nonprofit world she understands how important volunteer engagement is and its effect on fundraising. Even though Taylor has a full time job, she still finds time to help and volunteer on weekends for Family House. She has become an integral part of the Volunteer Program by supporting volunteer group activities on a regular basis.

Thank you, Taylor, for all you have done over the past 5 years and we hope that you continue to volunteer with Family House for many years to come!

Introducing The Arthur R. Ablin Award

Photo by Drew Altizer

In the memory of our co-founder, Dr. Arthur Ablin, Family House has created the Arthur R. Ablin Award for outstanding leadership and service to the Family House community. This is one of the many ways we will keep Art’s spirit alive for years to come.

The criteria for selection is simple:  the recipient must have demonstrated, over a significant period of time, Art’s passion for supporting sick children and their families at Family House through significant volunteerism and leadership.

Photo by Drew Altizer

The inaugural recipient selection was easy, in part, because we have achieved so much as an organization in the past five years with the new Nancy and Stephen Grand Family House. Congratulations to Scott Miller as the first recipient of the Arthur R. Ablin Award! He has shown devotion to our mission through countless hours of planning and meetings to help bring to life the Nancy and Stephen Grand Family House at Mission Bay.

Scott came to the Family House Board over ten years ago, jumped in with both feet, and took on the unforgiving task of leading Family House through a $43 million capital campaign, building design, construction, and opening. In his five years as the Chairman of the Board, he achieved all of this and more with a great deal of humor, patience, insight, wisdom, and exceptional leadership.

Please join us in congratulating Scott Miller in receiving the inaugural Arthur R. Ablin Award, as we thank him for all he has done for our families!

Rockstar Volunteer: Jillian Wong, Intern

Meet Jillian Wong, a recent Family House intern. Hear why volunteering at Family House is so important to her and her entire family, and about the difference you can make by volunteering at Family House.

Volunteer Stories: Brian Lee

Brian Lee has been volunteering at Family House for several years, and has a wonderful outlook on life! Hear from him why he volunteers at Family House!

Rockstar Volunteer: Caroline Mierzwa

Caroline Mierwza is a senior at Carmel High School who interned at Family House during the summer of 2016. She has always had a passion for volunteering, and it showed through her extraordinary service. She plans on being a pediatrician, and from our time with her, we know she will be incredible.

During her time at Family House, she mastered multiple roles, including conducting orientations with new families, guiding tours with visitors, leading volunteer groups, and even directing her peers in our Summer High School Volunteer Program.  She became so skilled in each department of Family House that we began to view her as part of the staff.

Caroline loves to cook, paint, draw, read, and hike, and she brought those talents to Family House. She even hosted a Family Dinner for our families, preparing the entire meal from scratch. She developed into such a reliable asset that we all (families included!) came to depend on her. Caroline’s service was invaluable - thank you, Caroline!



Learn more about volunteering at Family House at http://www.familyhouseinc.org/volunteer.html

Goodbye Greg Mora, Director of Volunteer Programs

Dear Family House Community,

As this is my last year working at Family House, I took a moment to reflect on the time I’ve spent here. My history with Family House began when a dear friend, who was a Weekend Manager at the time, told me about Family House when we were having classes together at San Francisco State University in 2006. She told me Family House was a very special organization I would like to be a part of. As she was moving to Paris, she suggested for me to apply for her part-time positon. Since I already had a hospitality background, I decided to give it a try. It was Paul Goold and Kent Smith who gave the tour and interview. I was amazed at the broad population of people Family House helped and the distances they traveled. Family House was welcoming, warm, and clean. The families knew Paul and Kent intimately like they were part of the family themselves. When they offered me the position I didn’t think twice to say, “YES.”

I began working as a Weekend Manager - giving orientations to families, working with the social workers at UCSF, managing room turnover, as well as being on-call for the families one weekend a month. The more I people I met, the more I wanted to be at Family House. It was such a special place where families were able to get the help they needed, no matter what it might be. In the process, I had the pleasure of meeting CEO Alexandra Morgan, when she stopped by on the weekends. As you could imagine, she and I got along right off the bat! She would tell me, “Greg! We need to keep you somehow.” Soon after, in 2008, Debbie Bosetti called to offer me the job of Volunteer Coordinator. I couldn’t believe I was given the chance to be a Family House full-time.  

Since then, I have had the pleasure of being the conduit between the communities who want to help and our families who need it the most. I have been able to create programming that nurtures a supportive and welcoming environment for all the families who stay with us.

Thank you to all our corporate partners, community leaders, local students, and past families who have done everything possible to ensure that families at Family House feel supported and cared for. 

After 9 years of being a part of this wonderful organization, I have made the decision to move on and establish roots for my future family in Costa Rica. Being of Costa Rican decent, I’ve spent most of my life traveling to Costa Rica to visit my family who still live there. I have always dreamt of living there and seeing them on a regular basis. My wife and I decided to move there for a while to live, work, and buy a home that we can come back to with our future family one day.

In the 13 years I have spent in San Francisco, I’ve created a community I am truly grateful for. In that time, the most meaningful community I have been a part of is the one a Family House. Thank you for all the love and encouragement you have given me throughout the years. I am honored to have been a part of an organization that strives for nothing but the best for all the families it serves.

I am pleased to announce that Karen Banks will be taking my place as Director of Volunteer Programs. Throughout the time I have worked with her  in our Volunteer Program, Karen has shown an abundance of compassion and hard work. I am confident that Family House’s Volunteer Program will continue to grow and succeed under Karen’s leadership.

With love and admiration for the community that has helped us throughout the years, thank you.

Greg Mora  

To learn about volunteering at Family House, visit http://www.familyhouseinc.org/volunteer.html

Rockstar Volunteer: Anna Vidovszky

Volunteer Leaders during the summer semester take on responsibilities above and beyond the duties of the Leaders in the Fall/Spring semesters.  They supervise weeknight Family Dinner nights hosted by various community groups, they manage the Summer High School Volunteer Program (with up to 15 students at one time), and also work summer fundraising events that provide additional income to Family House.

A very special Volunteer Leader this summer is  Anna Vidovszky. 
She has gotten to know Family House very well by helping in almost every department of Family House.  She has been a key volunteer this summer - helping to manage over 15 corporate groups!  With each group,  Anna explains the Family House mission, discusses the day’s volunteer project, and shows the volunteers where all the supplies are.

Anna has been a huge help to the Volunteer Program, as well as to other staff members by helping out with office projects.

Not only does Anna volunteer at Family House, but she also has volunteered for the CCHAT center in Sacramento, and the Emotion, Health, and Psychophysiology Lab at UCSF in the past.  She is currently volunteering as a Research Assistant in the Neurology Department at UCSF.

When Anna has a spare moment, she loves reading, writing, cooking, traveling, playing piano, and horseback riding.  Anna has gotten to know a lot of the volunteers and families, and is a huge help to the Volunteer Program. Thank you Anna for being amazing! Family House wouldn’t be the same without you!

Rockstar Volunteer: Delaney Randles

The work of a Volunteer Leader at Family House is never quite what one would expect. Many of our weekly volunteers help to restock the common areas of the house, ensuring that our families have enough supplies, including toilet paper, paper towels, soap, and other necessities. This spring, our amazing volunteer Delaney Randles took on the job of restocking, inventorying, and reorganizing the house each week. She has been a huge help to the volunteer program as well as to other staff members helping with office projects.

 Not only does she volunteer and go to school she also has an internship at the California Department of Public Health and has often worked on issues with the CalREDIE system in hospitals and with problems involving disease outbreak.
   
When Delaney has a spare moment she loves science (especially neuroscience), sketching and painting, playing many instruments, and reading science fiction books and comics.

Delaney has gotten to know a lot of the volunteers and families, and is a huge help to the Volunteer Program. Thank you Delaney for all of your hard work! Family House wouldn’t be the same without you!

Learn more about volunteering at Family House at http://www.familyhouseinc.org/volunteer.html

Rockstar Volunteers: Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com has undoubtably been one of our biggest community supporters. Salesforce volunteers are efficient, eager to help, and compassionate in every project they do with us. Whether they are deep cleaning communal spaces, hosting fun activities for kids or painting many walls at our facilities they always do it well and with a smile.

Family House is one of the few nonprofits where they send their newly hired employees from across the globe to volunteer as a part of their orientation at Salesforce. For almost 2 years, we have had Salesforce new hire teams help every month - 20 people at a time. 

In 2014, Salesforce volunteers, including new hires and returning employees, donated 521 hours of their time. Salesforce has certainly been a force of influence and support - their employee volunteers are caring and are willing to help at any capacity.

Since 2008, they have volunteered a total of 3,050 hours (so far), and in conjunction with the Salesforce Foundation, have donated over $80,000 through volunteer grants and fundraising event sponsorships. They are a “Hey Mambo” level sponsor of the 2015 Latin Nights Family House Gala, and were a “Martini” level sponsor of the 2014 Speakeasy Family House Gala.

We would like to recognize and thank Salesforce and their employees for their willingness to always go far above and beyond for all the families who stay at Family House.

Starbucks #603: Rockstar Volunteers!

Cole Munoz, a longtime Family House volunteer, had a brainstorm this holiday season that she named Jeans for Joy. As a manager of Starbucks #603 (at 74 New Montgomery Street in downtown SF), she encouraged her team to donate to Family House so they could wear jeans to work instead of the usual uniform. She also posted signs in-store to encourage customers to donate, and to help spread the word about the Family House mission.

Cole’s idea spread like wildfire through the Starbucks districts in San Francisco, and all told, 33 independent stores participated, raising funds for Family House families.

Cole first got involved with Family House through Director of Volunteer Programs Greg

Mora - the pair have been friends since high school. Cole has volunteered at fundraising events for the past 4 years, and she took the initiative to do something more personal this year. We hope Jeans for Joy will become a regular holiday Starbucks tradition!

Volunteer Spotlight: Joey Jordan

Family House has a strong and mutually beneficial relationship with the University of San Francisco. We have had a number of volunteers come to volunteer each semester through Service-Learning classes, as well as community clubs on campus.     For the first time, Family House has its own ACE student for the 2014-2015 school year. ACE stands for Advocates for Community Engagement, and is focused on “developing socially responsible, civically-engaged student leaders who facilitate quality service-learning experiences for all stakeholders and advocate for the common good of the community” per the USF ACE website. During the 2012-2013 school year, ACEs managed and led reflective activities for over 200 service-learning students.

Family House’s amazing ACE student, Joey Jordan, will be working with 14 USF students this semester, as well as providing his own service hours to help Family House at events, manage volunteers, and even TEACH Zumba lessons to the families. Joey is very inspired by Family House and is excited to support in any way he can.

He was drawn to Family House as he can understand how hard it is for a family going through treatments when they are so far from their own families.
       
When Joey is not volunteering or working on school work, he enjoys running in Golden Gate Park, spending time admiring the scenery, as well as volunteering at various non-profits including Project Open Hand, St. Vincent de Paul, and Raphael House.

Thank you Joey for all of your help this year at Family House!

You can get involved with Family House! Learn more at http://www.familyhouseinc.org/volunteer.html

Volunteer Spotlight: Marco Rodriguez

Marco Rodriquez first heard about Family House through the Psychology Practicum class at the University of San Francisco. He joined Family House as the an Operations Volunteer Leader at 10th Ave and worked to maintain the garden areas to provide a peaceful and well kept areas for the families.

He was drawn to Family House as he had helped at UCSF by volunteering to pass out books and magazines to critically ill patients. Marco has also volunteered in the St. Anthony’s soup kitchen preparing fresh meals for clients needing their services.

Marco was successful at completing his summer project at Family House which was to restructure the irrigation system to ensure the flowers and plants received the correct amount of water all year long.  On a day-to-day basis Marco also helped our Operations team with house projects, manage volunteer groups and even has been able to utilize his Spanish speaking skills at Family House.

When Marco isn’t volunteering or working on school work he enjoys spending time reading at home, cooking delicious meals and swimming. Thank you Marco for all of your help this summer at Family House!

Get involved with Family House! Learn more at http://www.familyhouseinc.org/volunteer.html