LVC and Americorps at the ReStore

Since the ReStore tries to keep costs down by having as few paid staff as possible we rely heavily on volunteers. Most of the volunteers we get are people who are coming for a short period of time. We get a lot of high school students who are required to do community service for school. Some people come to fill the time while in between jobs or during summer break from school. We also have a few volunteers who come on a regular or semi-regular schedule.

While we could not function without all these volunteers, we do need people who are full-time employees required to work so we know the store will be properly staffed each day. Without a large paid staff we instead use Americorps and Lutheran Volunteer Corps to fill positions. Both of these organizations provide young people to work with non-profits for a year at a time and pay a stipend to help with living costs. The LVC volunteers in Wilmington come from various locations. The organization provides housing for the volunteers. The Americorps volunteers we have had at the store have all been from the area so none have been in need of housing but Americorps does offer an education award that can be used for future college courses or to pay off student loans.

We are currently in the process of setting up interviews with potential Americorps and LVC volunteers who will start later this year. In the past two years we have had an LVCer to drive the truck to pick-up donations and in two of the last three years we have had an Americorps volunteer to work in the store running the register and helping customers.

Sales have been increasing rapidly over the past two years and we are planning a move to a bigger, more visible location that we anticipate will bring in more customers. We would not be able to accomplish this with just the paid staff we have. Without Americorps and Lutheran Volunteer Corps we could not have had near the success we have had or hope to have in the coming year.