August's Volunteer Power Hour visits RAFT teacher resource center
In partnership with Hands On Sacramento, volunteers for Project Inspire spent an afternoon last week at RAFT Sacramento, a nonprofit that distributes materials and supplies at very low cost to the region's teachers. The activity involved sorting and packaging materials to help teachers get ready for the new school year. 

Thirty volunteers from local businesses such as Gilbert Associates, the River District, Weintraub Genshlea Chediak Law Corporation, SAFE Credit Union, Horizon West, Event Architects, Natomas Chamber, AT&T, Sacramento Housing Redevelopment Agency, ICF International, Sacramento State and the Metro Chamber chalked up more than 40 hours; in addition, volunteers, Metro Chamber board members and staff filled four shopping carts full of donations for RAFT. 

About Volunteer Power Hour and Donation Drive

Activities of Inspire Volunteerism promote and highlight volunteerism within the business community, and offer organized volunteer and donation opportunities through the "Volunteer Power Hour and Donation Drive."

This coordinated effort provides Metro Chamber member businesses and their employees an organized opportunity to give back to the community. The Metro Chamber will coordinate monthly volunteer opportunities and drives for members and ask individuals to give one hour of their time each month towards a specific cause. In addition, there will be a coordinated donation drive related to the cause of the month. Check the online Calendar for upcoming events. Click here.

About Project Inspire
Project Inspire is a program of activities focused on promoting community through inspiring civic-minded leadership, volunteerism, and philanthropic giving in the Sacramento region. The Metro Chamber will do this by offering organized group volunteer activities, opportunities to contribute to a philanthropic giving circle, celebrating the giving efforts by businesses and highlighting the greatest social needs of the region. It is the goal of these organized activities to encourage participation by businesses and individuals, and to ease the giving of their time, knowledge, talents and donations.

Project Inspire is the result of multiple focus groups which took place over the period of 18 months, engaging more than 300 community leaders from a cross-section of private-sector businesses, nonprofits and civic service organizations. The program offers three categories of activities in order to meet our members’ expectations to promote and inspire community:

1. Inspire Leadership - activities will build upon the successful Metro Chamber program, Leadership Sacramento, and will include engagement of the new Young Professionals Group of the Metro Chamber, Metro EDGE.
2. Inspired Volunteerism - activities will promote and highlight volunteerism within the business community.
3. Inspire Philanthropy - activities will encourage a culture of philanthropic giving.

Other major components of Project Inspire, which we hope will occur organically, will be to have fun, enable members to learn more about our community, promote the Metro Chamber and create valuable on-going networking opportunities for our members – all while doing good for the Sacramento region.

Visit metro-inspire.org for more information.