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| What is NeighborLink Porter County? | | NeighborLink Porter County invites Porter County residents and organizations to seek free assistance from their neighbors, and invites Porter County residents to join Volunteer project teams to provide free assistance. |
| What is the mission of NeighborLink Porter County | | Practical, neighbor-to-neighbor expressions of God's love. |
| How does it work? | | The NeighborLink Porter County web page has three primary functions-Project Posting, Project Selection, and Volunteer Sign-Up. The Project Posting Site is where you can post a project with which you or someone you know needs help. Once a project has been posted to the site, the NeighborLink Porter County Coaches will evaluate, construct (e.g., how many volunteers, and what tools and materials are needed, etc.) and select projects. Once a project is selected, the Coach posts the project to the NeighborLink Porter County web page. Persons accessing the site can review the posted projects, and volunteer by signing up for a specific project, date and time, and if they so desire, may also donate tools or materials to the effort. The Coach and the Volunteers meet at the project location at the scheduled time and complete the project--totally free of charge, no donations accepted. |
| Why are you doing this? | | The founders of NeighborLink desired to respond to the love of God they have received. They believe that God is pleased when people, out of gratitude for what He's done, extend kindness to others, especially to those in need. They also believe that He is pleased when others are involved in the process of extending God's love to others. |
| What's the catch? | | There is no catch, other than for people served to realize God loves them. Participants are doing their best to show "neighborly love". There are no strings attached. No donations are accepted from people served. |
| What is a Coach? | | A coach is a person trained by NeighborLink Porter County, who receives a host of community-building, project definition, and coordination skills. Their mission is to build community within their Volunteer project teams, from project to project. A person desiring to serve as a coach registers on the NeighborLink Porter County website. After being approved as a Coach, the Coach's personal NeighborLink Porter County web page will be expanded to allow him or her to review projects submitted to the NeighborLink Porter County website, a Virtual Toolbox and special talents and licenses (e.g., electrical, plumbing, etc.) of Volunteers who have previously registered on the site. When a Coach locates a project he or she would like to select, the Coach may contact persons willing to loan tools, equipment and materials to Coaches through the Virtual Toolbox. In addition, if applicable, the Coach contacts individuals who have indicated they have special skills (i.e., painting, plumbing, electrical, yard-work, etc.) to volunteer for the project. If you are interested in more information about Coaches, go to the "Coaches" page. |
| What is a Volunteer? | | A Volunteer is a person that registers as a Volunteer on the NeighborLink Porter County website. Volunteers gets their own personal NeighborLink Porter County web page, where they can immediately access the projects posted by Coaches, and agree to participate on a project team to complete a specific project. If you are interested in being a Volunteer, go to the "Volunteers" page. |
| What is a Project? | | A Project is a task or group of tasks that have been posted to the NeighborLink Porter County website because someone has a particular need. The person posting the Project provides information about the task to be completed, such as the location of the task, the preferred time for completing the task, and a brief description of the task. Once the Project is posted to the website, Coaches can access the Project and, if they would like to do the Project, will post the Project to the website for Volunteers to see and sign-up. |
| Do certain Projects have a higher priority? | | Yes. NeighborLink Porter County is most concerned with helping those who have either more difficulty, or who simply cannot, help themselves. A person posting a Project to the website is asked to indicate whether the person for whom a Project is to be completed is unemployed, disabled, on welfare, is widowed, a single parent, or has some other hardship. While these disclosures are voluntary, they help Coaches prioritize Projects for posting to the website. |
| Would you help my community get started? | | Absolutely! We would love to partner with your community to help you establish a NeighborLink community service and learning network for your community. People from other communities are invited to experience different parts of NeighborLink Porter County's service and learning network. We would encourage members of your community to come to Porter County and participate in a project, participate in initial coach training or one of our monthly Coach Communities, and see if there is any way we could help you establish a NeighborLink community service and learning network in your community. NeighborLink community partners would be provided, free of charge, a license for our NeighborLink web page software and source code. |
| Are there projects that NeighborLink won't do? | | Yes. Emergency projects are NOT appropriate for posting to the NeighborLink Porter County website, as well as roofing projects. Coaches ultimately select which projects are posted for Volunteers to review. A person posting a project to the website will hear from the NeighborLink Administrator when their project is selected for completion by a Coach. |
| What if my project hasn't been selected? | | Then you should consider resubmitting the project. Typical reasons why a project is not selected by a Coach include (1) it is inherently dangerous, (2) there were other projects submitted which, because of the status of the person to be served (i.e., on welfare, elderly, etc.), had a higher priority than your project, (3) there were so many projects that there were not enough project teams to service all the projects, (4) the project required a special tool or skill set not available from NeighborLink Porter County Volunteers, or (5) the project as submitted is otherwise not appropriate for completion by a NeighborLink Porter County project team. We encourage you to resubmit your project request, modifying it so that it is more likely to be selected for completion. |
| Who designed your cool web page? | | We agree that it's cool. Our web designer was Bill Lorence, and his company's name is Midwest Web Works. He went above and beyond the call of duty in putting the NeighborLink Porter County website together, and would do a great job for you too. You can reach Bill at bill@midwestwebworks.com |
| What if I have other questions? | Just e-mail us at admin@neighborlinkpc.org. If we don't know the answer, we'll try to find it.
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